Possible main drain pipe replacement and new natural gas heater needed. 

It all sounded good, but long story short, he had no skin in the game, and I lost it all.  

That way if they don't purchase the house you still keep the downpayment, and you basically get a higher quality tenant with some skin in the game to motivate them to purchase the house.  ...and no need for rehab!

If you have not covered up the subfloor yet, stop in to your local pet store and look for "Natures Miracle" it is an enzyme to eliminate the urine.  

This would of course require 3 base things:  1) efficient utilities- a natural gas hookup in this case, 2) a well insulated house (sometimes challenging in the multi units in New England), and 3) implementation of a landlord thermostat to control the heat and regulate it to a range 65- 71. 

Underwriting for a living, naturally the idea of investing in real estate appeals to me.

Paid may give you some skin on the bone, but usually there is no real meat, you can find as much information on your own, free, if you just take the time to study. 

1) there are so many built in transaction management systems online and for the high performing agent hiring a TC is becoming 2nd nature (most offices mandate and most escrows now include them for free in transactions) Dropbox and cloud drives seem to do the job for disclosures and Zip forms seems to create an online heaven for digital document signing and storage.

You will learn more with skin in the game which will get you where you want to be quicker. 3.

I would let hime live there for free but I want him to feel that he has some skin in the game.