Find a great real estate attorney to help you with:1) Putting a lien on the property, with your aunt's consent, to cover any work you do.- Ask the attorney if your aunt & dad need to authorize lien, or just aunt.2) Understanding your options to force payoff of the lien.- Ask attorney how you can enforce collecting on the lien when you need to.3) Getting full control of the property, while allowing your aunt to keep her ownership.- Have attorney draw up a contract to do this.Suggest you offer your dad some cash, now or in the near future, to motivate him to transfer his ownership to you.It may not work out, but you will learn a lot either way!

I would be looking to use hard money to cover the costs of renovations.

Real numbers- purchase 907k,rehab , closing costs, soft costs, 840k, all in 1.747 mil, basis for each unit should be roughly 291kappraisal of each unit minimum 400k , so 2.4 mil if for all 6.I might refi only 4 out of 6, that will cover initial loan amount.

(NY counties are generally quite expensive)Do you have home owners insurance to cover fire or other damage?

., $700) to cover this, or are there other strategies for handling utilities in this situation?

I can only come out of pocket to cover mortgage so long.  

You already have this covered.2.  

Price RangeDefine your financial boundaries based on available capital and borrowing ability:For Class A & B, financing typically covers 75%-80% of the purchase price, allowing you to buy properties in the $6M-$12M range if you have $2.3M total cash.For Class C & D, due to higher risk, the price range might be reduced to $5M-$10M with the same cash.5.

You can cover the wire mesh with drywall patches (they tape on wall and across the wire, white/paintable, different sizes) as the wire mesh is what will prevent the rats from eating their way into the property (the covering material is cosmetic only).

Post insolvency, the framework allows an assessment to all private insurers operating in the state to cover the difference which will subsequently pass the costs along to policy holders.