I had a suicide in one of the homes I bought at court house steps.. guy just would not move and when we had to evict.. ( let him live there for 8 months for free you know me and how tough I am as a landlord :).. the guy went in the back yard and shot himself.we were able to list and sell.. but its because we already owned it.

I think your best bet is to JV it with a contractor that can do the needed work (providing the materials and labor) and then get a renter in their as fast as possible and stabilize the asset. 

OC is even worse.It's a tough call.

Figuring out how much that risk is worth to YOU is the tough part.A few things that I like about owning properties free and clear:1.

Jobs are tough to come by in DE unless your in finance, even then its all back office work.  

Bring a general contractor with you to the property and let them teach you how to identify problems and opportunities for improvement to bring the property to its full value.Go down to Home Depot and other individual wholesale materials stores and get a list of prices for everything you might use on this flip and every future flip.Go to the professionals desk at Home Depot and ask about discounts for bulk items purchased.It takes practice and a lot of trial and error at first to perfect the techniques to estimate costs.

The tough part is having a cash buyer ready to purchase from you a day or so after you buy the property.  

It's so hard when starting out to navigate through foreclosure auctions, wholesalers, and other non traditional means but the mls is a tough place to find deals at the moment.  

It does not materially add to the value of your property or substantially prolong its life.

Not sure how materials get bought either.I've never worked with contractors as I'm very new, sorry if this is basic stuff.