- you'll be surprised on what can of worms this will uncover in your due diligence.

(Lie to the seller that your inspection uncovered something that requires you to back out.)  

lets pay down all that debt and be "risk" freeValue = 100KLoan = 0Equity = 100KROE = $3.5K/100K = 3.5%At least I'm beating the nominal 3% inflation rate...A disclaimer, I'm leaving out a lot of important variables for simplicity of math to help uncover the trend I was trying to point out.  

You could be sitting in a goldmine market of foreclosures that are great deals, and you just have to uncover them.

These answers will uncover if a lease option or a seller finance will be good for him. 

However I can't know the full extent until the walls are uncovered.

I have had to walk away from properties for the issues that I did not know, but were uncovered in the due diligence phase.

Two parking spots, one covered in front of condo and one uncovered not in front. 

One may be tempted to say you don't need to be an expert, which may be true, however, it may take an expert to uncover (before you buy) that 123 main st. is encumbered even after the sheriff sale - then you are in trouble....

You must have your accountant review his 5 years of P&Ls and tax returns to uncover the truth.If the property had equity, why hasn't a buyer stepped up by now to purchase it and cash him out of his equity.