Records show he bought back in the mid 90's and I couldn't see any refi's since then so I assume there is equity in the house.It's just that since the person passed away more than two years ago now I would have thought the bank would have foreclosed by now but they haven't and someone is paying the property taxes.

If you ever end up in court, a he-said/she-said is probably going to work in favor of the tenant.Should you do month-to-month or a one-year?

Further details on the gameplan : Although to date we own 2 rental properties and have done 1 flip, we want to do a house hack/ renovation for our own primary residence to live in, build equity + possibly sell 5-10 years down the road.

That will come if and when your numbers work out in favor of a positive cash flow. 

Once Property 1 is paid off (again, using rents and personal income), cash out refi or HELOC equity from property 1 to buy prop 3/4/5 etc or target multi-family.Wanted to target producing 5-7K in monthly cash flow within 10 years on as few properties as possible.

The most I could probably get a personal unsecured loan for would be $40k and I don't have time to get a HELOC or for that matter have the equity in my primary since I just bought it this year. 

(1) That's highly unusual, unless she is short on equity.

I have 80-100k of equity in my house I can easily pull out.

You will sink some money into updates, but if you are willing to put in sweat equity, it really helps.

They would have had to stop it before 15 year mark for it to work in their favor at all.