But I'd rather not touch my personal home anyway; I'd rather use REI to pay off our mortgage.  

Everyone can see that the ex-wife will come gunning for all his assets at some point, the house included, so he asked me if I would be willing to take ownership of the place so that she can't touch it.I'd love to help him out so that he doesn't lose the house, but the question is how do I go about this? 

Ask them if they know of anyone they can put you in touch with that would be able to help you.

(he will have it early next week) I made a real big deal about this, and seller is aware price will need to go down, and no residential buyer will touch the house.Home also has an in ground pool, that needs a new pool liner, It also has a light that has fallen out of the side, leaving an open hole in the side of the pool.Assuming I can for an amount that makes sense (I am guessing around 80k after discounting the price to cover the structural issues), Can I expect a Hard money lender to loan on this property?

Let me know if I can direct you to any resources here on BiggerPockets, or if I can help you get in touch with the folks that can help you with your Real Estate goals.

That generally means to put it in an escrow account and not touch it until the sale is completed or terminated. 

If so, get in touch with them.  

PM me and we can get in touch and talk more if you are interested.

Sit home, buy houses cheap, send your contractor out to fix them and have your listing agent do the walk-thrus to tell you what needs to be touched up.

The house was 99% done with some touch up/clean up, realtor started some showing too.I am not here to guess who did it :D  my want to prevent or at least not make it an easy job.Too bad in Chicago, pex is not an option.