Ask for current short sales.Driving for Dollars (vital to understand neighborhoods)Local REI meetingsLocal City/Town clerks' office (great for finding places with overdue taxes)

I think it would make it safe by clearing the brush and trees so you could make it your claim to make it habitable through safe keeping. 

You don’t have to have a great score to get a FHA type loan, but good credit is vital going forward for everything that you need to do. 

It should become a habit and be sure not to forget paying attention to your driving, running over one of the neighborhood kids will not be a good thing.

A home would be non-lendable due to its habitability.

What I'm finding is it boils down to two VITAL things to make money. 

As an energy auditor, I get these calls all the time,Popular things are:-extra fridger/freezers in the garage (typically a free or old one they dont realize uses a ton of electric),-Hotwater tanks & Heating (is NG an option) If not look at airleakage and insulation-Failed wel lpumps or sump pumps that never stop running,-Non-Energy star Dehumidifiers,-electric space heaters that get left on or forgot about-A ton of Incidence light bulbsAnd the biggest one, Is typically not the KWH at all, but people switching to other non regulated providers such as ambit who have a habit of slowly creeping up to double/triple the market rate.

2) Are you disciplined now in your spending habits?

Your missing some vital details, but assuming you have them leveraged as much as you can now, then I would say do not pay your mortgages down, especially if your intent would be to just refi them in a few years to buy more rentals.Why not take the same money that you'd be using to pay them down and buy more rentals now?  

Hello BP fam, I have been eying a property not far from an area that is experiencing a lot of re-vitalization.