I've had this property listed with this agent for 18 months already and I do have a contingent offer that expires 11/17/16 on a house that he is having trouble selling.

Put a 10 day contingency in the contract for inspection.

Cash offers are highly advantageous because offers made with financing contingencies can fall apart if the buyer cannot qualify.

The agent was very clear in the loopnet listing that the property has been mothballed since Jan 2014 (almost 2 years) and is in need of significant rehab.For a property like this the question becomes  can the local market rental rates justify the purchase and rehab investment at a return you are satisfied with; a reverse engineering approach.With out even visiting, my quick assessment was that this was a $500-$600K ($200Kish purchase + $300Kish rehab + $100Kish contingency) project and that the local market rental rates would NOT give me the returns I want for the risk.

Most professional investors would have had a heart attack because it didn't cover every contingency like our 11-page realtor contract.  

We submitted an offer on an investment propertly contingent on inspection and financiing.  

What is an Inspection Contingency?

Still well worth it in the right situation.It would be worth your cousin pursuing a lease option or contract to purchase the new property with a contingency for the sale of his old property coupled with a large earnest money payment first.

In an ideal world you'd have time to look through a list of comparable sales that are very similar to the one you are looking at buying, or what you expect it to look like once you are done and work backwards by subtracting your improvement costs, desired profit, contingencies, etc.

Get an accepted offer with an inspection contingency, get quotes for the repairs.