You have a vinyl window there and that will be fine in the shower. i would remove the wood trim and tile right up to and about 1/2- 3/4" onto the window. seal the tile to the window with an outdoor extremely flexible caulk used for siding ( OSI brand is good and can be found at home cheapo ), this way as the vinyl expands and contracts it will not crack the seal.

With rates at near record lows they are EXTREMELY rare. 

While I am in the Lansing area (and there is one here), as a newbie I found the Ann Arbor club to be extremely helpful in learning some basic strategies.

Do you know someone who is looking for an EXTREMELY motivated agent they are willing to take under their wing? 

The problem there is a little more extreme, the neighborhood drug boys seem to like to shoot each other quite a bit.

Sorry if this is an extremely newbie question.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of some of the projects that we had to do to it.replace water main from the street to the housereplace all water lines in the housetear out all carpetPaint the interior (will be painting the exterior or residing in the spring)put in new laminate/vinyl floors throughout the houserepair dishwasher and oveninstall gutters on back of house and fix some water damaged areas of the wallreplace some of the rotted subfloor in the bathroom/laundry roomrepair the furnacereplace back doorchange door knobs and locksvarious other small repairs… patch holes, outlet covers, etc…Purchase price = $12,500Closing Costs = $1050Rehab (still an estimate, but it's close) = $13,500Total Cost = about $27,050Rent = $750/moHere are some before pics 

Any information regarding how the process works, to educational resources, and personal experiences would be extremely helpful!

The only maintenance that we've noticed being done on the house is yard upkeep.We have been extremely annoyed by the vacant house for years, but now we are wondering if this is an investment opportunity right under our noses.

I'm not sure where you invest, but Minneapolis doesn't have the extremely high property values like the high density east/west coast regions.