As long as conservative numbers work taking into account the increased cost of hard money, then don't worry about it.A hard money lender can be a second set of eyes on the deal and can help you evaluate it.

Con - if I decide to buy it, I may be forced to make repairs that in our evaluation do not need to be done.

@Ford Smith  the one thing I would add to the above is thoroughly evaluate if you decide to move and evaluate it  financially for both of you. 

Maybe even consider lending after you learn how to evaluate deals.

Aaron, I'm not evaluating a specific property right now.  

I tried clearing off caches and cookies and logging off/on, but didn't help. 

By the way, for changing batteries in the smoke detectors, is there some log I have to keep showing the date timestamps on when they were last changed?

The rest of the time someone does pay more and maybe they are willing to work for less, did a poor job evaluating, do see some value add I did not and it is truly worth more to them or maybe I just was not the right buyer for the place and someone else (maybe an owner occupant) just was okay with a higher price regardless of the numbers.So what about everyone here?  

A discussion among people who do it successfully can perhaps address how they evaluate and address some of those issues.

Welcome to BP @Kenneth Ashby Get educated on the businessLearn how to evaluate dealsLook at lots of deals to learn you market