I think your concerns are justified. I personally don’t like unfilled and unreinforced block walls, which are weak. Take away the mortar and the house can not be anchored to the ground, unless they used another method. Lateral stability could also be an issue.
I cut my teeth with foreclosure inspections. My former business partner and I inspected 3-4 foreclosures a day for almost 3 years all throughout New England. And although they were shut downs, we were still inspecting the structure, roof, electrical systems as we could. And we were being paid to inspect. So I count those 2000 or so inspections to this day.
You can get anywhere in the 6 New England states in about 8 hours.