You will need a geologist to do a soils test, a surveyor (depending your city you might be able to do a basic topography survey with boundaries or might have to do an ALTA survey) and maybe a civil engineer to do the grading/erosion control plans.

Most will be focusing on investments tied to the $2.3 trillion of subprime and Alt-A mortgages, a category between prime and subprime, where some of the biggest bargains, and riskiest plays, can be found.Many investors made bundles of money investing in real estate after the market turned down in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

I wonder if the Lenders ALTA would cover this as its suppose to cover lot lines etc ? 

In CA as a realtor I tell them est 1-1.5% of sales price as rough estimate but the Alta title and local taxes are not the same as Knox County.Good luck.

What about the impending melt-down in the Alt-A market some are predicting?

Actually, the recorded Option to Purchase may not impede the ability for a seller to obtain marketable title as ALTA policies ignore such a recorded document.I won't go into a discussion as to why, but they will and do, so it won't prevent and end run around you.What they will not ignore is a Performance Trust Deed or Mortgage which secures the equitable interest of the optionee as to the performance of the optionor.

Prior to that, Alt-A loans were available.

Closing costs are paid at the time of settlement, not beforehand, by the settlement agent (title company or closing attorney) through line item adjustments on the HUD/ALTA/CD settlement statement.

@Guy Gimenez  out this way you get an ALTA policy which lenders require and it ensures that your not landlocked.and other encroachments.

If you go to a seller and explain that you can get his property sold quicker than being on the MLS and for less money, even agreeing to do a double closing (in most places you can't now due to ALTA rulings) while it may be agreeable, it doesn't take you out of the fact that you are now acting in an agency relationship, saying you'll move the property for the owner even if he does agree.