If you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

Needless to say, they began to swarm the room with me running to get out and tripping over molding and other tools.

Are there any books or tools that can help with this process or is it just me doing excel? 

All the tools are out there to do it well.

- After going through the debris, we noticed that the tools we had in the home were missing.

You may want to try one of those credit score prediction tools - I know I am offered one through Capital One and American Express - if you have any cards that offer free credit score they may also have a tool like that.

I wasn't entirely sure how I would pay for it, or exactly what I was going to do, but I had ideas and tools ready.

There are webcasts and tools that will help you find deals to get started and analyze them to be sure they are good ones and not lemons . . . very inexpensive source of education and one "bad deal" woudl more than cover what you woudl have paid for an annual membership.

Not your end game I know, but just another tool in your tool belt. 

Is there any free tools out there that you use to find who owns homes.