I am currently a corporate accountant in the oil industry.

The Duplex is in an Oil city where a few months ago people were bidding up houses to be able to purchase now the market has slowed a little, but prices are still high, due to the low oil prices.

For example - a tenant put a pan on the stove to cook some chicken with a bunch of oil in the pan, realized they forgot an ingredient and went to the store with the heat still on and the oiled up pan on the stove which caught fire and burned down the property.

I often found they were too lazy to look for things and would discover at times 5 containers of Cumin or 3 bottles of very expensive used once olive oils from the gourmet section of the grocery store.

Are you on hold right now in "wait and see" mode in regards to the oil spill, or are you going ahead with your offers on Fla. properties?

Watching my house be built was an art as they had all the subs doing what they needed building batches of 5-6 houses like a well oiled machine.

The first thing to find out is whether the existing paint is oil or latex.Unless when you said it had never been painted because the house is brand new.

However, where creating a moat might not be feasible, creating a steep hill(with a few archers and a dude or two pouring boiling oil down on any would-be encroachers) might be possible.

Asbestos, radon gas, oil, run off contaminants, pollution in water, etc.

As mentioned by the other people here, lots of snake oil being sold out there now days!