I am in a similar situation so I know how you must feel.One book that's been tremendously helpful for me to start things off and understand what I was getting into is "Long-distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene, which I'm sure you've heard of/read by now.Let me know if you'd like to connect and discuss progress.

I am by no means staying this to discourage, just saying that you have more options to progress to outside of house hacking, and to explore how you can grow your investment portfolio in a passive and/or active way.

Is there a term or terms that would include all of that and anything else I would need to make a good assessment?

The fact that it hasn't been foreclosed on from the existing mortgage means the bank probably has done a drive-by assessment and just doesn't even want it.

@joseph – this is the unit at showdown path  Cliff, I see a few issues with this property and your assessment. 

Those sellers are going to either sell or die in their homes and then have their estate deal with it, so the only thing you need to do when you finally get them on the phone is to assess their level of motivation.

I looked at some DEEP energy conversions and their basement refreshes look ideal but not sure what the cost of that is. i did do an energy assessment a while back and in 2014ish blew in over 2' of insulation into the attic space, so that is good there. thoughts on where I should start this effort?

Currently a work in progress.

I feel guilty because my progress is so slow.

Properties are not worth the assessments?