This is why you have to hedge your purchasing by leveraging the 4 pillars of real estate investing. 

I'm wondering if I should walk or accept the seller's offer.From the homeowner:"We are willing to make repairs, but not with a foundation repair company as the company will want to put in new pillars, and with the age of the home and the updates done, it could cause more damage to the windows and leave cracks around the house.

One of the pillars of wealth building through real estate is using leverage and the awesome terms you can get when secured by a house.

Improvement of realty property as part of a real estate investment strategy is generally considered to be a sub-specialty of real estate investing called real estate development.I think we hit all of those pillars with self storage. 

@Rob Barry Two core pillars of a good rental are the quality of the rehabbed home and quality of the tenant.

(make those pillars stand out - two tone paint maybe)plant some seasonal plants along side of walk away and by bricks removing the left bush and if you have the money change that front door as well. 

The property looked abandoned - weeds growing 3 ft high at the security gate and pillars, tree limbs down, driveway lights (3/4 mile driveway) all broken and destroyed due to driving over them. 

As for your "nice little story", I can find 100's of stories of the pillar of the community who killed his whole family, or was a secret sex offender that hadn't been caught, or a million other things that don't prove any point.

It is a great pillar if you are working the investor niche and want to build your business on that.

My company now employs over 60 people & we have become local pillars of industry.