I'm new to landlording, but I work as a scientist in my real job.

Not everyone is cut out to be a brain surgeon or a scientist or a teacher or a real estate operator, not everyone can run a backhoe either.

The satisfied mortgages mean nothing of you can't verify there are no additional mortgages/liens.As for the discrepancies in the listings, you may not be aware, but they removed the requirement for all real estate agents to first be rocket scientists, so mistakes and misinformation are to be expected.

The owner is a scientist college professor who know absolutely nothing about maintaining a house!

One thing that nobody has yet mentioned is: aptitude.I spent a couple of years as a university grad student teaching assistant, and there were some undergrad students who wanted to pursue certain curriculum, but they lacked the aptitude to be truly successful at that curriculum.In other words, if you're not strong in both math and science, don't try to study to be a rocket scientist (astrophysics).Only you know your strengths and weaknesses - choose a curriculum where you can amplify your strengths and hide the weaknesses.

I would recommend 1) determining your soil type(s) via GIS or hiring/talking to a soil scientist, and browsing the soil survey for your county. 2) talk to your local AG extension office about your land, soils, and what you can do, if anything, to improve agriculture yields. 3) As said by others earlier, get legal counsel. 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the traffic on a house and know if there are multiple offers.  

The data scientist in me is pretty excited to see what you come up with.

If you had a data scientist on your team, what would you ask him/her to do for you?

as an Applied Research Scientist with a Toronto-based venture capital firm.