The renters noted they had been told very late by the property management company that the other house was available and asked them if it would be ok to stay the night at our house, despite not having water, because it was so late.

You will want to interview at least a couple of realtors and determine what resources they have available for you in several arenas (lenders, contractors, more). 

@Angelo Llamas If your cousin rents out the property, it becomes a rental once it's "placed in service," meaning available for rent, and he must report rental income and expenses on Schedule E.

The capital gains exclusion is available to owner occupants primary residence.

I think if you can nail that down you will be able to find a market easier.As a buy and hold investor some of the things that were important to me when deciding on a market were landlord tenant laws, price to rent ratio, housing demand, ability to build a team, large population 500K plus, multi-family availability and some other factors.take the process step by step and you will be fine. 

I know this is available in the Amazon seller space. 

However, if you learn the different options available and then figure out what they really want, you can often negotiate a killer deal.

I mean I highly doubt( but sure there will be other who say otherwise just because) you will find a very good investment property listed on MLS or other publically available service.On a side note if I did have aprroximatley 400k equity in two of my homes could I use any of that to invest in another property?

We were desperate and took the first available.

Our team is always available.