As a result, nobody has purchased it and the house has remained boarded up......the city feels that once boards are up, and the house is "winterized", they never would need to pay attention to the house again.......unfortunately, trees cant be winterized, they grow and will do bad things unless maintained. city disagreed....eventually a tree growing at a 45 degree angle on their property decided it wanted to fall because it couldn't support its own weight anymore. the tree fell in the middle of the street onto my house, destroying my cinderblock wall and chain link fence.

We are looking to build our net worth through real estate investments; initially flip/fix as that is what we know best given our backgrounds but eventually move towards a buy/hold strategy. 

I am looking to acquire wealth through real estate and eventually land development.

Eventually the bank or some government agency will put it on the market.  

Eventually, I hope to phase out the lawn care biz. 

I have a third option - a renovation property in a holiday / vacation location for short term rentals and personal use...After playing with the idea, doing a bit of research and eventually finding and delving around in the State Controllers Office.

If you are priced correctly you'll eventually sell.You're mentioning that the home is large for the area so I would be conscious of what other similar priced properties are for sale in your area within a few miles and see how your property stacks up.Dropping the price within a few weeks of a listing a property is not wise.  

By the way, their lawyer is one of their family member...how does it affect their case eventually?

Then eventually just rent that out.

Read all you can, and you will eventually gravitate to what makes the most sense for you.