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).

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.What else can we assist you with?

What I did was buy a single family home in the worst neighborhood you would feel comfortable moving your wife and kids to within 15 minutes of your home.

(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).  

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.

The worst scenario is if the seller or escrow really requires me to use my own cash, I will use my HELOC and cash to buy it.

Well I can, but I won't be rude on here.....But if you're feeling lucky, go for it, what's the worst that could happen? 

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