This is the biggest unknown and no one has explored it that I have seen.

If you are going around and unknown to yourself you're a carrier of COVID-19 you are inflicting harm against an unknown toll of people, violating their rights and liberty.

As Ellis San Jose mentioned, anyone who thinks the worst case scenario is that they'll receive 2/3 or liquidated proceeds is incorrect.In dealing with a pre-probate scenario, the decision must be made if you intend to buy the asset, buy heirs' or beneficiaries' interest, or merely focus on plays that make a profit.If you buy the interest(s) and probate the estate yourself, you become the PR and have the exposure to all known (and unknown) heirs and creditors as the fiduciary.

It seems like these days, the reserve always seems to be very close to the actual retail value of the property, which often isn't appropriate given their state of repair/ list of unknowns.

Lots of plumbing, flooring, tying back into the stack or moving it etc....just way to much to trust to unknown people. 

It is unknown if there is equity in the property or not.

I had my last rental for next school year get rented this week, and I took a group of young adults that weren't in school over students to hedge against the unknown, like you are referring to.

You'll save that monthly fee, and lots of other unknown fees that will probably bite you in the rear.PMs make money when there are problems.  

They may not be comfortable with the unknown.

Might be too much of an unknown for me to move on this idea, but I'm going to keep working on this.