Both the buyer and the seller can hire their own appraiser or Realtor to determine value.

Hire them to do a feasablity study  usually 3 to 5k.. and then if it looks good you can start down the path they lay out for you.Any specific information on BP will just be ramdom hearsay you need to talk to the people in charge of the area.. each municipality or county is different one size does not fit all.

@RaySlack is right you may need to file a quiet title action to ultimately get a clear title.If I were in your position I would also hire a skip tracing service simultaneous to filing a quiet title action suit to find the person.

Also thanks again for info on BNC Bank, i did reach out to them directly and was contacted immediately by a NY commercial loan rep who happens to live in LI where the bulk of my portfolio is, will see how it goes.

Same goes for hiring consultants or reading books.

I develop my own with help from hired independent contractors.

Hire an eviction attorney and start the process.

I recently connected with a DMV/Baltimore wholesaler, hired a real estate agent on elance.com for MLS listings, and contacted a few folks via craigslist.

If it's minor, I'd be willing to let the PM hire the service at the tenant's expense.  

There are younger guys who could use the work :-) I really only do it for enjoyment now, so if I need quick turn around time I hire it done.I don't really have a "type" of commercial space--wouldn't necessarily want a restaurant as a tenant  (too unpredictable) unless it was a popular and established business.