Title came back after a couple weeks and then we went to closing at my hard money lenders attorney office.

The best place to network with other investors and landlords in the Grand Rapids area is by joining the Rental Property Owners Association (RPOA) and attending some of their network meet-ups. 

@Darius Gary A good place to start is attending a local real estate social and ask for recommendations on property management.

My first couple REO's had 1 contingency, a 10-Day window inspection where I could bring in someone more experienced than me to make sure I didn't get over my head. 

I’m tempted to leave a couple obvious things so they can get some easy wins.Sometimes they find dumb things like tree limbs or moles(!)

I am still interested in the property but given the scope of the repair, I'd like to get a couple of estimates from contractors first so I can factor them into my bid. 

This is the only scenario that clearly benefits the original owner but the benefit is typically only some high rent amount.In summary, the downside for the current owner is so much greater (loosing out to huge appreciation) and more likely to happen (historically the appreciation has been outstanding) than the upside (that the tenant does not exercise the option and the owner has been able to collect higher rent than a traditional rental).I did know a couple of tenants in San Diego that had a lease options. 

There are some cracks that look fine but a couple are a bit larger than nickel size which concerns me.

I moved into my parent's rental property a couple years ago.

I have talked to a couple of local credit unions and either I got connected with the wrong person or they are not very generous on what they are willing to provide as each of them were not quoting very favorable terms.