Your best bet might be to look for an overseas crowdfunding marketplace (which I am not as familiar as, as the US marketplaces).       

I bet he had the ability to buy if he wanted to.

I imagine that could be a double edged sword if one were to fudge the numbers betting on property appreciating during renovations. 

At the end it's a lesson learned and your best bet is to minimize your losses.

I bet if you take the cash now in 5 years you will have little idea of where it all went.

If I used WF title company to do the search I can bet you my right arm that their search would NOT advise me of the issues with the title that exist! 

Of the hundreds of thousands of users, about 20% do 80% of the posting and actual transactions I bet.  

If you agree with this strategy, do you think credit unions or banks are my best bet?

For example, if maintenance has been low for the last few years you can bet you have a bunch of deferred maintenance.Typically if you have a signed contract a title company does the initial title search as part of what the expect to be a closing.  

@Mark S.Your private equity head is somewhat correct although mutual funds are largely beholden to large asset bases that make them closet indexers so they are not nearly as risky vs. an index (i.e. not as much selection risk) where as the type of fund we are talking about will be making a lot fewer selected bets and will probably be taking more risk so manager selection is uber important.