Money wise you have an asset that costs you and maybe you can access the equity while she is alive.

Any and all of those could be health and safety issues and could stop a section one clearance, rendering the home not financeable by traditional means.

I stopped by that house today to check out a minor plumbing issue.

Water heater(also from the 80's) stopped work.

She has access to a lot of different programs.  

The person on title but not obligated to pay the mortgage is at an advantage relative to the other party, since they can stop the sale, rent, etc, but don't have to make any payments on it.

If anyone else had access to the basement at any time , that gives reasonable doubt in the eyes of the law . 

We do however have a conservative $150k equity in our primary residence as well as access to other forms of credit to get the job done if needed. 

Though I have no interest in the transactional job of real estate, these sort of things (doing management, easy access to properties on the market) make getting my license more and more attractive on a practical level.

What I did is put stuff in garage for a month and discount rent for new tenant by $50 for first month to compensate for no access to garage.