@Ryan Pozzi - sometimes, depending on the deal, and especially the size of the deal (single family vs multi family) you can make a cash offer and in the amount of time it takes to get to settlement, close with lender financing. 

I'll be honest most of my friends and family are jealous when I tell them about my current project or when I collect my rent checks or when I come home from a settlement on a flip.

Account Closed, Your basis would be your purchase price plus some of the expenses from your closing statements.Your basis includes the settlement fees, closing costs for buying property, improvements: see below. 1) if any improvements were done to the house, add that. 2) The following items are some of the settlement fees or closing costs you can include in the basis of your property.

There is no need for the average investor to do a title search themselves or prior to a settlement.

But I can tell you with out first duplex, we had a legal settlement of $5,000 with in my opinion an incompetent real estate agent, we had 2 tenants move out, we had the sale of our old property fall thru a day before closing because the buyers financing fell thru. 

At settlement the title company cut me a check for a little over $58,000.  

@Anthony Dooley wrongful death cases often end with multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements.

This is a contract interpretation question and the contract has not been provided. lolWhat exactly does the contract say about the condition of the property to be delivered at settlement?

the 20% down no appreciation rental real estate purchases of the last few years are already underwater if market just drops 10% from what they paid for them the other 10% will be eaten up in settlement charges.. so there goes the investors downpayments..

The $25M settlement years after the 'University' shut its doors also speaks volumes.Indications are that the programs were a sham similar to some currently delivered by some gurus who convince people to go into debt for programs that don't deliver true learning or skills.