I stumbled upon this site from the research I've been doing on real estate.

I told everyone who would listen what I was looking for in person over the phone through email and on social networking sites.

Unless you can get something *in writing* from prev owner preferably with pictures and notations with dates you will lose.

I know any seller profits from a sale can be taken to satisfy a judgement, but this person would be losing the house to foreclosure and thus there is no money to take.  

I'm thinking about putting the money somewhere 'safe'(maybe something like us treasury money market fund) that would give me enough returns to match inflation, so that i could then invest that when there is a downturn/correction/recession, without losing any of my buying power.

Definitely utilize everything the site has to offer (forums, blogs, podcasts, webinars, etc.).

So in researching rehabs I found this site, which claims to give ranges for various work and jobs by zip code.

This also has the added benefit of placing the liability on the PM LLC which doesnt have assets so there is nothing to collect if you were to lose a case. 

I would say 99% of MLS or board of realtor sales contracts have a due diligence section in them by default you can waive it or make offers sub too it.. 95% of people buying real estate use a due diligence clause unless you have a smokin deal and don't want to risk losing it in a very competitive market like say VEGAS right now.

To wholesale a property, you must buy at deep enough discount that you can sell to an investor who can rehab and also make profit.To buy and sell ANY property, you must know:The true after-repaired-value (which you cannot find on free sites like Zillow.