I walk through with my cell phone on a note app like Evernote and write down everything that I seen that I'm pretty sure was not pre-existing (side note: I always walk around everything twice before discussing anything with the tenant, you'll be surprised how much more you see the second time around). 

It is not surprising that you have not gotten a deal from that. 

I understand there are contingencies in a contract regarding the inspection period that give the buyer the option to opt out if there is something unexpected that comes up in the inspection.

It should be in your lease that they have to pay for any short term unexpected issues.  

Always remember to continue looking for additional information that may have been missed to avoid costly surprises. 

So with this being my first experience in having to replace an old boiler, I was surprised to find that this is standard practice. 

You may be surprised what you find.

I've purchased a house that had 'everything replaced' but I've been hit with big bills unexpectedly...so if you feel the urge still without cash reserves (or the ability to build one) I hope you have some credit you can tap into (which it doesn't sound like do).  

I offered $185k which was immediately accepted.I was surprised by how quickly I picked this up because I had made 3 other “low’ offers on other units that had all been bid up well above the original asking price.I say low because I was only under-bidding by about 5%.I thought 5% below asking was a good deal, but know I know you should look closer to 20-30% below market value.Now, I did some things right on this property.It was a 4bed/2.5bath at 2550 sq. ft. purchased at about the trough of the downturn.During the 3 years I lived there, I had 4 roommates at various times, pulling in an extra $21k total (sound familiar to Brandon Turner’s “house hacking” philosophy…great minds think alike???).

Li Wa, I'm very surprised to hear that Upper Darby is that bad...I have scoped out several neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia and Upper Darby remains one of the cleanest and spacious (few if any row houses)   There are patches of not so great streets, but for the most part I don't see anything overly negative about it.