Sellers step-father died in 1981 and the seller doesn't know if he had any siblings or if this was his first marriage. 

Great story ... my takeaway: BA home ownership = good investment (most times) ... marriage = bad investment (sometimes) ...

It comes down to material types, roof age, claim history for the property, claim history for surrounding properties, rolling catastrophies in the zip code, credit, loss history for the applicant, profitability for the other insurance companies in that area, age, marriage status, and many other tiny/annoying factors that us brokers cannot see. 

Work on your marriage and not so much your next deal.

I'll be there tue/wed with my 2 newest grand daughters( by marriage this last weekend). ages 13 and 5.

Part of the fun of marriage I suppose :) .Going forward, I would like to be able to make some side income (to start, as our funds are currently pretty limited) with real estate while we save for the next property.

But Florida is an equitable distribution state, but it's laws regarding community property for assets acquired during the marriage do qualify and meet the IRS guidelines.  

After 37 years of marriage, Jake dumped his wife for his young secretary.

@Ben Kirchner that's a question for your marriage counselor, not your tax guy

This is the religion that said (until '78 or so) that "blacks were that color because they turned away from God", that supports RAPE (in the form of coerced marriage), among other pretty goofy beliefs.