Holding the security deposit in its own account is a very good practice; but also make sure that there is some sort of "continuation" for that account.

There was probably a way to address that in the original life estate document (some sort of time limit for the abandonment).

But you need to find some sort of solution because this may come up again.

I sort of inherited it, it was my mother in law's home.

If things get out of sorts, the lease agreement is what holds true. 

Must be some sort of fee or percentage of credit raised.

I attend multiple meetups from Santa Barbara to Thousand Oaks and meet with folks doing all sorts of strategies - House Hack, STR, LTR, Infill Development, Flips etc. 

Once you have the money for the deal sorted then you can start underwriting properties and submitting offers.

Go to zillow and sort by lowest prices in your market.

(Maybe you could make some sort a pre-arrangement with them - or work with an angel investor that could front the money and then you reimburse them with a hard money loan or something like that).