Basically once someone bids, the auction extends for another 1-2 minutes... and it goes back and forth until there is a winning bid (everyone else quits bidding).

You should either do a househack as someone else suggested, or consider a passive investment into a syndication opportunity for non-accredited investors, or through a reg CF offering.

Stating anything else would be foolish, wouldn't it?

But a licensed brokerage as you state will have E and O  there is clearly Errors and omissions here that any agent who has half a brain would have seen by personal inspection or reviewing paper work and helped steer the client away form this mess. 

Especially if responding to your questions doesn't take much of my time, feel free to send me a DM and I'll gladly reply without asking you for anything, which I'd have done even if you hadn't asked for free advice.This being said, I feel the need to warn you against wanting free advice or free anything else, especially when investing in a foreign country.

Worry about getting a deal closed, everything else is easy, You can transfer to an LLC after, All the best 

Or would I just invest/spend/blow the savings on something else?

It's not uncommon, I'm actually helping a client clean up the mess from a very similar, handshake agreement. 

It's not a passive job (regardless of what the IRS says).Everyone honestly should be running and creating their own calculators - why people invest tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars and then rely on someone elses (or better yet - pay for someone elses) calculator blows my mind. these are simple calculations for 90% of landlords.

On the other hand, I also want to be there for my mother.Has anyone else faced a similar situation where you have limited time off work and multiple responsibilities pulling you in different directions?