Any theories as to what role these 2 red feeder-sized lines are serving in the panel? I’ve never seen this before.
Probably supply power to a downstream panel. Not sure that they’re supposed to be separated exiting the panel like that. In commercial you can get inductive heating that way… Are the reds a smaller gauge than the blacks?
This is a 1000 sq foot house, and no sub-panel to be found. 1920’s era construction, only one family has owned it and I believe they did a fair amount of un-permitted work. Yes, the reds are smaller than the blacks.
They go somewhere and that panel looks full. I guess they need to get someone to track them down.
The red on the right appears to be continuous the braided uninsulated on the lug next to it.
Likely GECs unless you found other ones.
Look closely, they are tapping neutral buses.
Since they’re on the neutral bus they’re most likely grounding electrode conductors which believe it to not are permitted to be red. 
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OOPS! 
Yes, they appear to be on the neutral bus bars, but I have never even seen this dual lug style panel. Why would it need two?
I’m sorry…what are GECs? I’m new to the forum shorthand
Grounding Electrode Conductors, the wire that runs to the grounding electrodes used to ground the electrical system.
So, this panel is designed with 3 lugs to allow for grounding? Am I wrong, or isn’t that what the bare braided line is for? I look at it and I believe that it is wrong, but I don’t know how to articulate that it is wrong. I’ll be back at the house tomorrow for a radon pick up and will likely be able to ask the seller a few questions. Just looking for what to ask or what to report.
The bare twisted AL is from SEU (service entrance cable U type) supplying the neutral (grounded) conductor to the panel… This is not something to ask the seller. Instead, try to locate the electrodes, most likely ground rods and see if the same type of wire is connected to them. One could go to waterpipe. I strongly advise retaking the electrical course. Also check for bonding, I don’t see it in the pic. These are not the things you want to screw up during an inspection. GL 
Thank you for the response. Just to confirm some points: these appear to be grounding electrode conductors which should not be red, and this panel is designed with two lugs for two separate grounding electrode conductors. I’ll retake the electrical course, but in the mean time can you tell me why there would be two of them? I’ve just never seen such a configuration before. (non-metallic plumbing btw)
Forget number of lugs… not an issue. I don’t know what you typically find, but it’s very normal to have 2 rods and or waterpipe+rod, thus 2 GECs. Do you normally see only 1 GEC? where does it go? Color wise, what makes you think it’s wrong? I don’t see a problem with it being red.
missed that .should have looked closer
the problem with the red is that should only be used for power if its grounding it should be green codes require that
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Do you have the code that requires the Grounding Electrode Conductor to be a certain color?
Codes require GEC to be green? so bare is no good? red for power? so black is no good? I’m lost. 