EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

When we bought a house we were first time home buyer, so we didnt have a lot of knowldge, and we didnt know how to negotiate. ( Realtor didnt really help to negotiate, and lessson learned. ) We don't have a lot of equity in it. 

Lease purchase and sublet and assign your contract to the buyer or the seller.

It's the first place I have seen in a while with this much upside potential. 

I try to avoid this neighbor due to lots of activity of cars coming and going all weekends and week evenings.After much effort and skip tracing I was recently able to locate the out of state owner of the property on the side and promptly sent another certified letter as earlier mentioned.The big problem I may face soon is if I sell this property I may face issues from the buyer or buyers insurance company regarding these trees overgrowth,Short of me digging in my pocket and paying for tree service there is also the issue of contacting the owners requesting permission to access the trees for trimming.

You can potentially look for "hard money" lenders which will typically have looser barriers but the rate and fees are going to be much higher than conventional. 

This is a little tricky but I've had a few buyers able to do this in their transition period between property 1 and 2 and qualify using @ray above.I would recommend getting on a call with @Ray to see your options as far as lending goes and then I'd be happy to take you from there and show you what you can do in this market as for house-hacks. 

Your profile mentions that you are a real estate agent - You want to have a conversation to see if you potentially are eligible to claim real estate professional status which would allow you to treat your rental losses as active instead of passive.Also have a conversation if you are required to make estimated tax payments since there is no withholding on your commissions.Lastly, your profile mentions you are in Florida which does not have a state income tax which opens you up to more options for choosing an accountant.

The roof and the floors were not huge costs to us the buyer, as the seller filed an insurance claim for water damage just prior to our offer closing.

If it didn't, buyer beware but in any event and regardless of foreclosure vs foreclosed, get a title report so you know "who's on first".