I've read a couple of post about investors not trusting wholesalers because of the wholesalers lack of ability to calculate rehab cost.  

Obviously if you can make the deal even better with a certain type of loan you would take advantage of it.Jeff Wagner and Phillip Morris with One Trust Home Loans are excellent resources here in Houston.  

However he needs to shore up, rebuild trust and act with integrity.

Ruel, you may be able to find a contractor that will walk the property and give you an estimate, but it may be tough, sounds like the Realtor gave you some idea of the rehab cost and depending on how much you trust him, sounds like he may have told you a number that may get you the house. so 205K plus say 65K for rehab puts you at 270K. you have about 10K in purchase closing costs about 22K in closing at sell, if your intention is to flip the property ( if sold for 320K) so now you are in for 302K plus holding costs, maybe another 10K, so 312K. you could make 8K in profit, if you sell at 320K. i am guessing this is a foreclosure being that you said that not having a home inspection would make a difference with the bank in selling it, because most lending banks would want a home inspection. you can have an inspection for your own piece of mind but still waive the inspection.

Definitely score one point for the "don't trust Zillow" camp. :)

So even if they see the NOI increase, can you really trust that cap rates remain so low?

Thank you for trusting us as your real estate agents.

You need to address this swiftly and professionally.  

Is it true to say that most vacant land does not have a physical address? 

Consideration must be exchanged for a transaction to even be legal.I'm not a fan of land contracts because you don't own it until you pay it off, but some kind of mortgage/deed of trust via seller financing would be my go-to here @Daniel H TruexBe patient with the refi part.  12 months is nothing in RE horizons.