I have a motivated seller, ARV is 130k, repairs unsure (sounds like cosmetic and a bit of electrical work) but she has 2 mortgages on it.Mortgage 1- 79k, payment 940Mortgage 2 -18k, payment 226Market rents are about 1,000.I'm not looking to assign the contract, I'll do the work myself, I'm expecting about 10-12k in repairs but I'll confirm when I go on site with my contractor.I have set the expectation that my offer won't be high enough to cover both debts and she wasn't surprised.

We rehabbed the Baths and cosmetics.

I stay at home with our young boys and I had to pull my oldest out of school because he was acting out and falling behind because of the lack of routine and having to go back and forth from in-laws house to school/activities and then hotel to school/activities) and breach of contract.Any advice??

The parge coat is just a cosmetic coat and is not structural but it cracked because your stone foundation is pushing in. 95% of the time this happens due to hydro-static pressure.

One side of the duplex needed a lot of cosmetic work and the other side was in great shape.

I'll sum it up in two questions...1) Assuming full cosmetic rehab, what projects will we need permits and licensed contractors for? 

A local investor had purchased it a few years ago for 16k, and since has made some cosmetic renovations  such as new siding, windows, flooring etc. 

@Derwin Smith-Bishop we don't do sub-to, but we structure purchase money mortgages fairly routinely...I'd be glad to share what I can.

You can have the building inspector in to determine if the work is to code and, assuming you had all permits pulled, you can make the contractor redo but most of the work sounds cosmetic in nature.

@Steven Kleppin I'm differently setting up a routine to listen to their podcasts thank you for the tip!