It’s now going on 1.5 months and we haven’t closed yet because a) the title company determined that the deceased owner hadn’t paid 5 years of back taxes on the property, and is still in the process of figuring out if there are any outstanding liens related to that, and b) the deceased owner did not have a will and the daughter’s lawyer is still working on settling the probate case.

In the meantime see if you can put extra cash towards your mortgage payment to build that equity.Third, save a few bucks and handle repairs on your own for your first property. money saved by DIY can be put towards building a cash reserve.There's great, talented filmmakers that made outstanding movies on shoestring budgets by being resourceful and creative.

In the instance you described, unless the contract specifically specified that the security deposit amount gets transferred to the new owner, the seller would be allowed to apply it to any outstanding charges and transfer only the remaining balance to the seller. 

Having made connections with the base housing authorities at several installations nationwide and accompanied with a strategy that was new to me at the time of reading BiggerPockets very own "INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE WITH NO MONEY DOWN".

Also, I understood that the city will be verifying any outstanding items and let the buyer know before the "real estate transfer stamp" is completed <= This can take a minimum of 5 days.

What are your insights on Short-term rental demand as we go deeper into this (RECESSION) and interest rate hikes ? 

Do a move out inspection, make sure any utilities that remain with the house (ie you were responsible for if they don't pay) are paid, remove any costs including the outstanding rent from the deposit and return anything that is left.

If so, it is my understanding that you can only have one outstanding FHA loan, so would it be a good idea to use the the FHA first on a more expensive MFH that cashflows better and that we can house hack while fixing it up? 

Was able to pull out enough to pay off GC & all outstanding credit cardsPlan is to now pay off both HELOCs w/ agent commissions, having achieved financial freedom via STR incomeListings:2/2: https://airbnb.com/h/rillitopath 21/1: https://airbnb.com/h/rillitopath 1 Lessons learned?

They also once mentioned why am not using them for repair work in exchange for some of the outstanding rent (got me uncomfortable with that)Also tried to get a PM but once they find out details of tenants/occupants and the eviction process they back off and ask me to contact them again when this has been resolved.