Could possibly pay them on sale of finished property if you know them and they are on time with reno's in the past. 4) Buy with your money and renovate with your money and hold for 1 years to ensure tax burden is better and rent out in the meantime after you reno. 

I would just recommend that you review these to ensure they are in line with the Class of asset and class of area (i.e. if this is a class C property in a class C area, you will want to probably over estimate your maintenance costs due to age of property and include a bad debt factor for any lost/missed rent payments).Finally, since you say all these expenses are estimates I would highly recommend having your realtor get a T-12, Rent Roll, and P&L from the current owner.

Hi @Bobby Barlow in my opinion this property appears to be something worth fully doing the numbers on if you were ready to invest; however there are expenses that the seller didn't provide an estimate for in which you would need to ensure you include when doing your numbers (and it doesn't appear that the $500 for taxes and insurance includes these expenses) those expenses are repairs and maintenance (and I'm referring to maintenance issues that will occur while holding the property and not the $15K for the foundation, the foundation issue should be part of the reason the seller is willing to accept less than what he thinks it's worth) management, and reserves for replacement.

In the winter, we prioritize the exterior, and we ensure that exterior work is getting done at every possible moment.For example, last winter we had a house that needed to be painted, and we waited literally 6 weeks for the temps to rise to the point where we could paint.

The other possibility is that they'll be doing something illegal out of the house and want to ensure that you have no reason to come around.

That's right - how to ensure your family is taken care of after you go.

Actually, the escrow servicer can anticipate increases in taxes and insurance and collect slightly more than 1/12th of the current annual amounts to ensure funds are there in the event of increases.

Does anyone require a copy of the vehicle registration to ensure proper registration?  

My gut tells me to take care of it to ensure the long-term quality of each house.

I'd also want to see other bids to ensure that your $30K bid is reasonable.- I'd want to see an appraisal/BPO to ensure that your ARV is accurate.