So if it has only been a year you probably don't have much tax due as @Bill Brandt said.There's another complication that could influence your decision. 

The people I have are just interested in a monthly check without having to get sucked into something more complicated.

But it sounds complicated when there is already an additional layer.

You also need to build in a very large and puffy buffer into your estimates as there will be more demolition, construction and inspection than you think.If the property has been abandoned for a couple of years, assuming the mortgage payments stopped around the same time, the lender would normally have foreclosed {Nova Scotia has judicial foreclosure}.  

@Rich Hupper I think your foreclosures are judicial?

It's not really that complicated to buy out of state.

My dude, you're making this way more complicated than it is.Gathering the data to input into these indices would take more time than finding great deals.I won't poo-poo all of them, but for example index #2, list price to Tax Assessed Value, with all due respect who gives a crap?

It's not really that complicated to buy out of state.

Excel is nice, but for more complicated schemes (creative financing ect.), it can become a mess very quickly.

Your fiance's situation is a little complicated from the tax side.(1) I'm pretty comfortable saying your fiance and her ex-husband should have filed gift tax returns when the home was transferred.