Open an estate in his name myself in order for the courts to determine if he has heirs and if not, I could potentially get the house.I would have to spend about 20K to make it livable.What should I do?

I'd pick the tone based on how much I was or wasn't concerned with the situation.Tenants want stable housing, and I haven't yet run into someone - though I know they're out there - who wants to get technical and confrontational when there's a simpler option for them.

Luckily, my wife and are living very frugally and are able to live on my base salary while saving all my commission checks.After reading the book, I’m now determined to achieve financial freedom!

During that time, I've also perused the forums picking up tips and information from the community that I believe have been pretty useful thus far. 

If you were to pursue the deal you should have the property inspected to determine the condition and life expectancy of all major components and appliances.  

@Marc Dube, how does the bank determine the amount of a home equity line at this stage?

This is something my loan officer should have picked up from the inspection so I could negotiate pending an issue, but they didn't, which goes back to my first point. 

As far as books, after having read a lot of them over the past couple of years here's what I would suggest. 1) Start with personal development books 2) Next move on to business books 3) From there pick up some real estate books.

How do you determine if my market is trending up?

. :)   I have no doubt you'll pick up tons of info on BP.