They had none and the traveling seller had already left.  

@Mark Brown - I’m no pro by any means, but the first priority would be to make it habitable.

I was a member of CREIA, but it just got so far for me to travel once I moved so I haven't been in awhile.

How do I find more accurate repairs estimates without wasting a contractors time on someone that has no proven ability to buy the house and hard money lenders want BPO's, how do I get those without having a realtor willing to travel all over the metro area for nothing (or paying them a bunch to do them and finding out I just wasted a lot of money) Without having true numbers, I use theirs and add to the repair estimates and then factor in a guesstimate of closing, holding and hard money costs (they only accept hard money or cash).

Will be traveling with wife and making a decent wage in a tax free country.

In my state at least ( Michigan), when a tenant tries to offset rent with habitability claims, the law requires that they put the rent in escrow.  

But taking more out then you need to fund your RE habit would be illegal.

This way, I did not have to waste much time traveling to unwanted places.

Since a lot of my flips are in smaller towns across Texas, donating to Habitat or Craigslist is not usually an option. 

I think occasionally there are a few that are not habitable in their current condition and so there is no first look period.