You can't confine your Central Florida rental search to just the small borders of Orlando city proper.

Like yourself, the States looks very attractive, but as a new investor, I think it makes sense to stay above the border to take out that added layer of difficulty. 

But this particular lien encumbers the property of the now deceased who owned no property when the lien was written.

You said the deceased owner has no surviving relative so there is no way around it except auction.

Asking price has dropped to $6000Problems: Title is in name of deceased relative. 

Bird dog finder - driving for dollars - sign staplerACQUISTION manager - marketing motivated sellersTenant buyer screener and home presenter, meetup presenter for lease to ownMarketer for private lending - accredited investor screener - SDIRA presenterMarketer for money partners - doctors - business ownersClean out and pack up and move to storage service for probate houses (recently deceased)There's more...

I lived on the Lowell/Avalon border of MA before the brutal April winters forced me down to the south.

Northwest Indiana in particular is full of Potential and considered a suburb of Chicago as it lays close to the border of Illinois. 

I reach back out to the deceased owner's sister to set up a time to go through the house.

Now if it has border up windows or a hole in the roof, that's a different story.