I used to do these for fun years ago and soon remembered (after posting this) that my primary way of tracking one down is to visit my friendly neighborhood county recorder's office and search for loans by the same lender (HSB) and see who canceled/discharged them.

In my area, if you do the work, you can get a 1200sqft 3/2 in a decent neighborhood.

Holding 20 years you'll probably get a new roof, appliances and how many paint jobs.....The neighborhood will be 20 years older,that 100k ranch style could be nearing 40/50 years old.

I don't want to waste their time or mine because there was some feature of the house or neighborhood that's a dealbreaker for me.

The problem is, I don't really want to own in that neighborhood.

There have been some poorly done rehabs in the neighborhood I am working in and unfortunately anything can qualify as remodeled...including homes with stained carpet and 12 broken windows...ugh!

The town she lives in is very impoverished and standard properties in low income neighborhoods range from $20,000 to $60,000.

We'll have fun improving the neighborhood.

Than my focus changed and I found a neighborhood I like in LV to invest, and I could still rent for 1.2% of the purchase price.

Dates and life expectance of all mechincal items.The neighborhood is older (1957) with Large Trees so I paid a Plumber $95 to run a camera down the drain to the street.