Typically, a buyer can't/won't/shouldn't take control of a property until they close on it, because they do not own the property until they close.If you rent out some other person's property (or estate's, in this case), I hope you plan to get some sort of written agreement from the current owner/estate.

I enjoy every detail of fixing and flipping very much, from rethinking the layout to choosing the color scheme. 

Varun,Typically, the Insurance company would not contact the Mortgage company unless the policy is being cancelled.  

I'm working with the owner of an almost 100 year old small (<900 sq. ft) craftsman bungalow with small rooms typical of a home of this vintage.

The HML will do 70%, what does a gap lender typically cover?

A regular conventional loan for an investment property doesn't require you to live in the house for a year.FHA requires that you must owner-occupy the property but not regular conventional investment loans.They will typically require 20% down though so if you're looking for 3.5% you won't find that if non-owner-occupied.

.- Typically the buyer side doesn't need any documents to be notarized.

The local 1-2 location banks typically have the most flexibility when it comes to creative financing. 

I thought it was 10 typically?

Typical move for a non-owner occupied is to put the property under an LLC.