With these types of sales, negotiating is like pulling teeth.

Do you mind sharing specific/rough pricing for such calls: 1) small things like a drywall patch, 2) to bigger things like a furnace/water heater repair, 3) time-sensitive things like a burst pipe or water-heater out, 4) anything else. 

Personally I like the low risk approach to a local house hack, cutting your teeth, so to speak before looking out of state.

If it has no "teeth" for damage, it's going to get very hard used. 

As your commercial real estate portfolio grows and your loan balances grow with new acquisitions, lenders become more and more sensitive to your liquidity position when you are filling out Personal Financial Statements. 

Here's where I'm about to be REALLY blunt, again please stop reading if you're not OK with that or are feeling sensitive today.You can spend that 50 hours on the empty promise of "wholesaling" or "seller financing," or any number of other whimsical things, but the problem there is that so far you haven't been able to sell anyone on hiring you for more than minimum wage 40 hours a week, how are you going to sell a homeowner on selling to you for 60% of fair market value? 

This works OK for relatively static and simple investments like a private placement or crowdfund, but can become rather cumbersome and expensive with a more time sensitive and transaction intensive asset such as a rental property.

My sympathies to the family of the deceased and my best wishes to you as you navigate this sensitive issue.

If you have no experience expect to put more money down, maybe as much as 50% of the purchase price and rehab costs, and to pay through the teeth for their money.

I'm sure if you grit your teeth and get it done, you can find someone decent.