If power was consistently on and she didn't maintain proper heat or take steps to prevent frozen pipes, that's different.

Even if you own it, you may be prevented from altering it. 

My mom told me that we should get a personal real estate agent in order to prevent having their credit score checked and lowered.

The reality is the large majority of realtors don’t understand the 203k loan, or are uninformed and jaded by heresay about the loan that prevents them from working in your best interest.

One thing that frustrates this is the big credit check sites that cater to smaller landlords (eg, cozy.co, mysmartmove, zillow's credit check) actually prevent you from seeing their SSN (and probably DOB but I can't remember).

This helps prevent any hard feelings or tricky situations.

I want to refinance the house with my father and I ONLY but I'm assuming me being married is going to prevent that from happening.

To prevent tenants from making their own repairs and deducting the cost from the rent, the landlord should deliver to the tenant an affidavit, signed and sworn to under oath by the landlord or property manager, summarizing the reasons for the delay and the diligent efforts made by the landlord up to the date of the affidavit to get the repairs done.

@Max ScottI would recommend not lurking and attempting to stay active, it will help prevent you from turning into someone who read a book once and keep the journey on the forefront of your mind.Good luck!

We have lived in the home 2 out of the last 5 years(owned it since 2003), which should prevent us from paying capital gains taxes.