My lawyer and Friend Jon Batastini is located in Ocean City and deals with these issues in his law practice.  

It takes more time to research city liens than it does to buy a list from list source.

If someone needs temporary housing I have some untenanted units in the Quad Cities that I'd be happy to provide for temporary use until this all gets sorted out.

Biggest things I'd look at is how is the foundation, what kind of wiring is existing, type of water supply lines etc.  

@Aaron PetersonI moved your thread to the landlords forum.Snow removal ... it will be here before you know it ... .I've already put our RFQ as we were not happy with our service in one city last winter.In our experience, when it comes to landscaping/lawncare and snow removal, anytime you cannot define where one tenant's domain ends and another begins, the obligation falls to the landlord.If you have a side-by-side duplex or a row of townhouses where each tenant has their own drive and patch of green, you can hand-off snow removal and lawn care to the tenant ... though you are just as often better served to take care of it yourself and bake it into the rent.Anytime you have stacked units or a block (such as a small purposely built quadruplex), the parking and green space are common areas (just like stairwells in the interior) and fall to the landlord.

If you are buying on "contract" the City of Des Moines requires a third-party inspection from an approved vendor (seriously) and are potentially moving towards having city inspectors conduct the inspection (speculation).  

I won't be able to research the whole city.

Here's how I attained both in a relatively short time:-I worked for a Big 4 Accounting Firm auditing the financial statements of the biggest names in real estate..

We are searching for a house with a guesthouse, duplex, triplex or four plex in the urban core of Oklahoma City.

While the biggest problem may be the 2/1, I do think the market has taken it's toll and definitely has not recovered to where we were in the early 2000s.