Purchasing a home in San Jose from a hoarder/cat lady

[Brandon Tom]

Hello BP community!

Long time listener, but completely new to the forums. I have never done a deal before, but have done tons of reading and listened to about half of the podcasts. This is complex, but I will try to succinctly describe the situation. 

Goal

Help the owner who is my fiancee's stepmom sell the property and make a lot of money for everyone involved. We are open to rehabbing and rent, rehab and sell, complete tear down, whole sale, or anything really.

House information

According to the city the property is a 2 bed 1 bath. The owner has turned the attached garage into a master bedroom and bathroom (Total of 3 bed 2 bath). There is also a detached 2 car garage. The owner mentioned that her parents had the property zoned (10+ years ago) so that the separate detached 2 car garage could also be its own living space.  Not sure if that is true, nor how to verify if that has expired. Lot size is almost 10K, which is rare for San Jose. It was built in the 50's and the roofs on both the main property and the garage are going bad. Water is not running in one of the bathrooms, nor the kitchen. The ceiling above the kitchen shows cracks running diagonally through it. There are over 50 cats living in the home so the place reeks of urine. 

The Owner

She is retired and falling behind on taxes by about 6 months. She wants to move somewhere where she will have 5+ acres, be near a river, not too hot, not too much rain, not too cold, and not dangerous. Ideally the place will cost no more than 250K. She mainly wants to stay in California or Oregon. She says she is unable to pull money out of the house. She is oblivious to the condition of her home and adamantly believes that with about 15K the house would be in good rental condition. 

Finances

The house is completely paid off. Right now between my fiancee and I we have 49K saved up, 28K in IRA, 750 and 790 credit scores. We have a combined income of 150K and live 6 hours away from San Jose, in Orange County. We also have an investor friend who would invest up to 100K and knows hard money lenders who would be interested as well.

Additionally, if we decide to rehab the property, she would need a place to stay which could house all of the cats. I'm sure I left out a lot of relevant information but am willing to answer all questions. Please help us out with any advice you have!