The second mortgage was attached to an alternate spelling of the owner's name and for some reason I'm still unable to do a record search by legal description of the property (name) on the Palm Beach Clerk's online system.  

Hi,For a rental property, you can take a loan from online lenders.

I even asked if there was way to get to them online and she said no...

You bring each name forward to today.In Mass a lot of this is on line at least going back 20-30 years.

That's very affordable.You should be able to check comparable rents on-line to find out what rents you could reasonably get for those two units.Regarding legality of two units on one parcel of land, check with the local Building Inspector, or Zoning Board.If it wasn't a three-hour drive from me, I'd buy it.

If the pipes are galvanized and subsequently rusted or deteriorated then you can either tunnel under the house (stupid and unsafe if not done correctly) or hammer the slab and replace it with plastic. 

I've taken over properties that were worse and I've seen worse online.

  :)There are a few sites online that will sell you appliance parts; you can look them up by model number. 

You can also seek out a freelancer online.

If you're going to fully benefit from membership recognize that most people will communicate with you online as if you've been a member for some time and just put their opinions out there, in the raw.