The investment vehicles you mentioned seems interesting and there are also great books on "long distance real estate investing" (including an often recommended BP one authored by David Greene with that title).  

I am the only person with the decision making authority for investments for these trusts.

Mention the city name and/or county name and/or housing authority name, you want people with keyword alerts set up for that (who are likely in your area) to see this post. 

However, in general you would start with the taxation authority (municipality or provence) and the land registry for the province.  

Sometimes it is a relative acting for an owner who is not competent to sign and no legal declaration to that affect giving authority, sometimes just someone pretending to be the owner, sometimes just scammers.Make sure that you have clear government issued id for the seller and it is really the owner, and all owners are checked out.Also you need to ensure that the renters do not have issues or long term agreements. 

@Ram Venkat your handyman is not authorized to make a repair on the landlords property .

THEREFORE, TO MY WAY OF THINKING, I HAVE ABSOLUTELY ZERO AUTHORITY TO BE GIVING ADVICE.

Has anyone ever blindly purchase a bank owned property with occupants still residing in it and if so, did the occupants vacated after closing or did you need to get the authorities involved?

I'm almost certain that I am not authorized to send out the official letter of notice, but my concern is that if I ask the seller to do so she would say no due to fear that the buyer may not close on the house and she would be left with a mortgage and no tenant.

If you used a standard real estate form it likely says that the taxes will be prorated and that means that escrow will split the taxes and the seller pays for past and you pay for future.So, say your taxing authority collects taxes for  July 1 through June 30 of the following year.