Also, you can meet with City staff to discuss your questions as well for you to gain the knowledge yourself before paying an engineer. 

If you are just picking up "deals" hoping someone will pay a premium in a struggling market, then it will be tough for anyone to sell. no matter how many lists, emails, or phone calls you make. 

Can any of these vendors lien the property if she doesn't pay? 

You have 4 kids, and it seems like with your income you have a steady high-paying full-time job, correct?

When you guys calculate ROI on a rental property do you typically include the equity gain from paying down your mortgage?

I am sort of tired of "I am a good tenant because I pay on time" so do an "X" for me right away; basically treating a landlord as a room service. 

Best of luck with your journey—I have no doubt that your hard work will pay off!

They took that opportunity to scare them in the hopes that we or they would pay them something for their equipment.

Here in Chicago, we charge to walk properties with our clients, so you could double-check with some of your local GCs in Seattle to see if you could pay them for their time. 

BTW, I have a great agent, an 800+ credit score, a high paying tech job, no debt besides my mortgage, a home that's difficult to get a HELOC on because appraisers can't figure out what it's worth (I live in the country in a very unique mid century home), but only a small amount of cash.