Stage the rooms with the paneling in "farmhouse" type stuff, even a few pieces or artwork propped up will help. 

Sure in theory the owner just signs a piece of paper saying you can take over ownership and he'll just up and walk away, as long as you pinky promise to pay the mortgage every month, but I guarantee you that there will be more unexpected hurdles coming. 

I have a marketing piece available to anyone interested in this property.

Our home inspector report likely would make my personal home seem like a piece of s*** and about to fall down.  

These are only $2 a piece and take 30 seconds to install yourself.

I have a piece of property I am looking at selling to some builders. 

You gave a response, with several key pieces of information.

So next year I will have at least £35.000, to put down as a deposit - and the old man (my dad) might also want a piece of the cake - as he is very interested in property as well.I've got my dad to join me on the mortgage - as bail (I'm not quite sure that's the english word for it.)What do you think about my strategy?

General Liability covers damages caused by the contractor, either to a property, piece of of equipment or to a person caused by negligence.  

But let us know whether this person lived in the house or if it was an investment Michaela  ,, just fyi  CA  NV OR make no distinction on a loan on a 1 to 4 unit  if its for investment purposes to a corp or individual etc. in those states any loan made on that asset class requires a license..