There are bad years, where more than one house needs a new roof, or you have to dig up a sewer line. 

The less an inspector finds the less they are motivated to keep digging.

I've been doing some digging, but can't seem to find a consensus.

Again estimate costs, or would digging through county records be the better choice, or possible both?

We are still in the search phase, but narrowing our choices down a lot, gaining more insight on the properties as we dig deeper into the initial cost and over all investment. 

Also, I have a full time job, plus a small practice on the side, so my time is not unlimited but I'm willing to shift things around if needed.I have not had a chance to dig deep into the forums but I will do so in the next few hours.

I am not a Dallas expert but having recently browsed the market there I suspect with some digging you can find closer to 10% cap on good properties.Taking those numbers at face value I'm thinking the property begins to get interesting below $270k.

I figure if I start digging up some great deals, that will open a lot of doors/opportunities.

I agree with  @Greg Hall I would have your agent dig deeper and see what really happened. 

We are trying to figure out what, if anything, we can do to help this person dig himself out.