Some are more forthcoming than others, but you can always reach out to a title company (sometimes at a fee) to get a preliminary title report for the most accurate picture of what's honestly going on with the property. 

Granted his target audience for this advice is largely those who have trouble managing their finances, but a lot of investors with strong financial management skills might be better off performing their own analysis to arrive at a decision to finance or not.

Of course I will have a business agreement in place stating this.I want to lend the 10k on terms and would like to receive monthly payments until the complex is performing at a certain standard. 

A large loss adjustor is going to come meet us on Monday with one of their preferred contractors to assess the damages and give us an estimate.It seems like the next step, which is probably the most important part of this process is to find a good contractor that can give both us a fair estimate to make sure the insurance company isn’t going to try and lowball us and perform quality work to restore the house.

You're spot on with that approach, but determining the outcome (accurately factoring in the profit potential and required time) clearly involves some significant experience - not the kind of thing I should attempt to plan for.

Maybe something from B2R which would allow you to roll three or four loans in to one, which would allow you to perform your strategy two or three more times again?

Bank regulations simply would not allow FDIC-insured money to be invested in such a poor credit risk but the beneficiaries of the deceased man's mortgage deserved payment so they sold the non-performing mortgage to a Boise " Private Note Purchaser" for a small fraction of its face value because the heirs lived in a small community and did not want the infamy of being the ogres who would compound the misery of an unlucky family by seizing the home through foreclosure after the occupants had suffered the loss of their son to childhood disease.The Boise opportunist had no such inhibitions.  

I am scheduling a walk through this week so I'm hoping the repair estimate is accurate.

Is there anyone who uses a safe or accurate number who has experience investing in Duplexes in KCMO?

I share the properties between the providers and can gauge their performance and price.The responses are great and they cover items within the infrastructure such as AC/heater,electrical, plumbing, garage door etc.If there is anything uncovered that needs to be fixed, my broker connects me with local handy men or professionals to take care of those issues.One of the providers, https://www.ahs.com/ charges $75 per call.