Purchasing from heir

[Deanna O.]

I'm open to comments & suggestions --

I'm looking at purchasing a (VERY!) distressed property from heir. 

County tax lien is already in place, clock ticking for auction. House is FULL of trash, no heat, pwr & water off for several years. He's been residing (camping?) at the house. There is currently one other person staying at the house, not paying rent (he has told her he is selling/leaving, but she has nowhere to go, so who knows what will happen there).

 His Mom died 6+ years ago. His brother (only sibling, not married, no kid, no assets) died a year later. Neither had a will, & no probate was filed for either one. As far as he and I can tell,  he is the sole heir. He has had possession for 6+ years, and the county has the property listed as in his "care".  There is an old loan lien still on the title, which I will be researching (I believe it was paid off & no payments have been made for years -- both parties have passed away).

IF I proceed, my plan is to -

a) do a quit claim, with heir signing over ALL rights to the property into the escrow (both as heir to his mother and as heir to his brother), delivering possession of the UNOCCUPIED property and in exchange recieving 50-75% of the price in cash (the quit claim & delivering possession MAY have to occur at different times. The larger chunk of $ to be upon delivery of possession).

b) I pay back taxes to prevent tax auction

c) Pay him remainder of funds upon completion of filing the petition for settlement of his mother's estate, so I can file for a quiet title. My plan is to fix & rent it, so as long as I have possession the time line isn't critical (though I would like to get a clean, unclouded title so that I can refi if needed to do a full rehab). 

I'll be talking to an escrow/title company about this to see if they would handle quit-claims. I've already talked to the tax board, and they have been very friendly & helpful. I think they would rather NOT see it go to auction (also, it might help that  I'm not out to rip the guy off, &  I'm not one of the local sleazebag slumlords).  

Is there anything that I'm missing, or anything I should consider that I may have missed? My thought is that even if after all these years other heirs suddenly appear out of the woodwork and forced it through probate, I'd still own at least a 1/3 share of the estate.