My advice....talk to a lawyer and don't rely on some people on the internet to offer you solid and reliable advice on a situation like this...This is gonna get messy......your uncle obviously resents you being involved and has probably been stealing your legal cut of this property.Talk to a lawyer ASAP...

What a mess!  I

It is potentially quite messy. 

If these go to the deed sale, is this actually something that would be purchased or is there some sort of messy HOA entanglement that  would make this deed unattractive for an investor to purchase the deed at the sale?  

I am just going to bulldoze the whole mess.  I

How they end - e.g. messy or civilly - depends on how they were started.  

They come and tour the property I look at there car and see if it is messy.

That can get messy if it happens.Oftentimes sketchy applicants "wave a fistful money" under the nose of landlord, hoping they will not do their due diligence and overlook something untoward in their background.I'm not saying this is the case here, but I would (a) not take the advance payment, and (b) I would vet this applicant at least as thoroughly as all the others.Lastly, in some jurisdictions (like the state of NY, for instance) it is actually prohibited for landlords to take any deposits/advances amounting to more than one month's rent.

I agree with Mike, this sounds pretty messy.

Sounds a little messy.