Are you currently living there and you want to move somewhere else but you can’t sell it?

If you didn't move quickly to execute your value add you might find yourself stuck in a similar situation. 

I lost contact with the lady living there but her boyfriend, that I have only met once (he is on the lease but never lived in the house) tells me her ex-boyfriend was creating problems so she moved out and is not able to talk...

The security deposit would also be transferred to the new owner (although you are bound by the original lease to return it after damages are paid when they move out) and a lease supersedes a sale so the current lease stays in place, you don't need to sign a new one. 

We’re planning to rent our home when we move—but we know we will be moving out of state. 

I talk to developers all over the us and most of what you have would pass my initial screening to move forward. then it would go to sponsor experience, liquidity, construction experience, site location and site reports, entitlements, construction partners, etc to clear all the conditions. make sure you have a plan to purchase all the fixtures we passed on that. not sure about hotel financing of beds, desks, etc 

I personally like Zillow for screening and listing my units then once I have a signed lease, I move them over to Avail which is much more robust for managing tenants (if you're self-managing which I recommend starting out).

He is a minimum wage worker with no handy skills, so it would be hard to partner with someone that doesn't have the resources to move us forward.  

Best of luck with all your investments; I look forward to connecting with many of you over the years to come! 

Start your real estate investment journey with Brandon Turner's "The Stack" method, starting with small multifamily properties and gradually moving to larger ones.