This one we couldn't pull out all of our closing and down payment costs.

I’ve been concentrating on figuring out what areas of Cape to concentrate on prior to pulling the trigger on something.

I could pull roughly 25k out.

However, even if the public records are easy and open, you can save a lot of time working with a list broker who has compilers that can pull homes with the criteria you want and differentiate between the UPS store mailing address and property address.

They just charge $150-200 per day because its' too hard for them to make a contract and estimate priceThen the landlord pays for materials and the handymen work on the house.I think these landlords 100% of them consider these handymen independent contractors and NOT employees.I wonder what the solution isIs there a standard contract you can have them sign that at least says they 1. have own insurance 2. are independent contractors 3. are not employees 4. are independent handymen doing work for a property owner and not for a contractorIs there something like that or are the dozens of landlords and investors in my area just doing it wrong. 

@Dominick Marschall another option would be to do a cash-out refinance of the property and pull out some cash.

A written lease should contain a "both parties agree that any/all other or previous or outside agreements are void" clause, that you could then show to a judge if the tenant pulls out an audio recording of a rent to own agreement with the previous owner (gotta be a bit paranoid when it's a $500k asset on the line).

Hopefully you are able to get a good solution.

I have friends that live there with their families but cant pull the trigger on buying a rental there. 

You’ll most likely have many conversations before you pull the trigger on your first deal.