And a follow up question: if it is an old water well, what is the best way to dispose of it (fill it with dirt, concrete, just cover it, other?

If you plow all of your disposable income into one house, you won't have anything left to pounce on good deals.

If you are financing you are weaker than a cash buyer IF the property won't qualify to regular home buyers.Regular home buyers generally outbid investors all the time as they are making an emotional decision versus your numbers one.Where the real money comes is in solving a problem.The bank has a dog of a property that only a cash buyer can purchase.You go in and fix cheap and make a huge return.How a seller sells will depend on if it's a HUD property,Fannie Mae,Freddie Mac,the FDIC,a local to regional bank,a national bank,if the asset is being managed directly or outsourced,or you have an equity debt buyer that bought a pool of properties they are liquidating.They will all dispose of properties differently in different times spans with different motivations.Raise your offer (if at all) to where the numbers make sense for you to invest your hard earned cash.If not you move on.Better to sit on that hot cash then invest in a marginal deal.Then by patiently waiting you will find the great deal.

Knowing that some REOs just aren't salvageable, the bank also is working on a pilot to dispose of the worst REOs on its books by donating or selling the properties to cities in exchange for having them demolished.

Now, not only you spend money on labour and material, but you also spend on partial demolition, labour and proper disposal (Those old houses have lots of nasty materials in them that you cannot just haul to the local dump site).

You can simply just buy the house in a disposable LLC and transfer the membership interest of LLC to your wholesale end buyer for a fee.

All counters are being replaced.The first two floors have garbage disposals and dishwashers.  

If its not, it will cost your more to break it out and dispose it.  

I have a super awesome real estate agent at my disposal so we've got you covered!

Back in the old days many of these businesses would illegally dump materials instead of disposing the proper ways.If there is remediation needed check with city, county, state, federal for possible grant money to offset.