Most people commenting about how vital purchase price is, are thinking in terms of normal real estate transactions. 

You can wrap yourself in many, many layers of protection, but nothing beats being honest and doing what you say you will do.

Memphis is a market that provides: stabilitycash flowappreciationThese things are vital when you are looking for a market to invest in.

Something else is to speak with wholesalers, possibly find a mentor, learn vital skills to complete wholesale deals and use that as a way to build up your cash flow.

I be contacting these layers

As for your buddy, issues are bound to come up if your at it enough ( in my opinion) but like others have stated, screening is vital!

The land trust for me gave me another layer of protection and also do not like anyone to know who is making an offer as my offers would be in behalf of the trust.

A "new roof" is great and will last 20+ years but there are plenty of people that just take shortcuts and put a new layer of asphalt shingles on top of the old ones to save time and money. 

I would only get a chunk of it, and gain vital knowledge around the process.I typically make non-contingent cash offers (no inspections, no mortgage contingency etc), however, the concern over the septic system issues could not be overlooked.

Things move very quick here, so it's vital to have the right team in place.