I have been slowly educating myself on real estate and have a huge interest and strong motivation to get going on this journey. 

A seller who has little motivation may negotiate hard on every aspect of the contract. 

and both offers have been accepted (motivated seller- Husband doing rental property and he has passed away - while working on a rental)  So both properties listed for 49,000 each...then $39,000.  

I suppose if I threaten that I will evict them on a certain day, it would give them the motivation to apply for places less desirable that they may be qualified for. 

Once upon a time appraisers made a decent income relative to living expenses and would do this sort of thorough research, but appraisal fees haven't been tracking with increased costs of living for some time, so it's currently a volume game for appraisers, not really a quality game.

How did he get there, what motivated him to get started initially, what are some of the biggest successes or mistakes he's had, what would he go back and tell himself if he was starting off as a newbie.

I hope my story can help someone else or motivate like so many others here have done for me.

Additionally a sort of kitchenette with some cabinets , small sink, small fridge , microwave but no stove.

I'm an avid reader and actually take pleasure in this sort of research, but what frightens me -and this is no shade to all the kindness of info offered me by some of the industry professionals here-, .... is exactly that: There is such a largess of professional brokers, flippers, money managers, agents and companies vying for my attention that at this point, my instincts tell me to back into my tortoise shell, read a few books on this, and THEN come back into this information market.

If you send out enough direct mail you see all sorts of stuff.