You should be able to recoup the costs through your own market activity (plus some), you'll gain plenty of useful knowledge you didn't know you needed to know and as a mechanical engineer I'm certain you can handle the 60 hours of coursework and exam.

I'm thinking of offering $61K which would leave me with enough money to handle the repairs.Conversely if I flipped it it would need more like $30K in repairs and probably sell for $125.

Just because they have a season (or life) of financial struggle doesn't mean they can't handle other life affairs responsibly. 

It wasn't pleasant, but I think I handled it the best way possible. 

i hear ya, ron. i bought on house from hubzu, never again. we ended up not buying the place from them after all. even my attorney here clearly stated to me that if i buy another house from hubzu, that, in his words, " find another attorney to handle it for you". i will never deal with them again

How would you handle this?

@Jon Holdman The mortgage company knew since they were handling my 203k rehab funds and was in direct contact with my contractor. we even filled out a mortgagors letter or completion the second it was finished. 

The fact that we're talking about 2 claims spread among 3 properties (2 rentals and our primary residence) did not matter, it was handled the same as 2 claims against 1 property.Okay, so we contacted some other insurers and finally settled on State Farm.

I want some tax advice & strategy in property & business entity, and currently i'm not such if i can hire CPA part-time to handle my taxation & book keeping.

Either way but if they want to use their agent you need to have your lawyer look at how the contract of sale handles commission.