This is compounded when junior lien holders and other estate creditors have claims that must be negotiated in order to complete the transfer of title from estate to you or your entity. 

These kinds of loans typically range from 10+% a month (not compounding).

If the porch is bowing and or bent/warped, you could put in a couple piers to support the slab.

However, I will have to bow to both of your far longer experience with the probate arena (I'm a newbie), and create a shorter version to split test them for results. 

In addition, once you have both properties cash flowing- you could focus on paying down the heloc quickly to free up more CF(start benefiting from compounded gains over time), or pay it off when you liquidate the primary. 

If the bricks are bowing out away from the house, the movement can be arrested with star bolts.

It was a house on Bow Creek.

Death in the family, divorce, job loss, etc...compound that with the deluge of creditors calling and mailing, not to mention the investors and realtors just wanting to help them in their moment of need and you start to kind of understand the people your going to be working with. 

If you had $100,000, you could buy 4 houses for $400,000 and watch the power of compounding kick in.  

Twice :) Then I discovered "exponential growth" and "compound interest" and decided I'd rather not live off my cash flow!