But that seems to be a fairly common ploy among scammers to convince you they're legit. 

@Benjamin Branson - this is a common issue in South Florida.

In my area old houses are very common and just the standard investment.

If so, it should be fairly easy to pinpoint which costs increased and determine if the increases are reasonable.One common way for closing costs to increase is if the closing date changes.

If I was the seller and gave you access to all the common areas where things like galvanized piping, tuck pointing, and lentels could have been seen during that walk through.If there was limited or no access provided prior to offer being made, that is another scenario. 

Part of the scope of work mentions receiving data from the common platforms so they can verify host compliance.

Seems like a common thread from a number of investors that post on BP about how they lost their shirt buying a property based on photos. 

Is this common practice to automatically begin working on title and the charge the buyer if it falls through?

But like Chris mentioned, a 30/70 split is very common.

What I'm looking to do is detect water in common areas such as under the hot water tank, sinks, and such locations.