Pay them a little for their time.This will save you the expense and time of a Quiet Title.

(Minus the small percent of the payments they’ve made that’s been considered capital gains.)My understanding is the 60 payments they make will be split up in to interest (regular taxes), capital gains (15% usually), and principle pay down (non-taxable.).

fast forward to 2000s my mom asked me to pay the property taxes so Ive been paying it since then.  

I do want to separate my business and home expenses, but even if I had a business CC, I'd still have to pay it off with my personal money because its going to be awhile before I'm making income.

Thanks Dmitriy, another great resource on this site!

But as the previous owners didn’t pay their mortgage how likely are they to pay the rent? 

If that number is greater than the purchase price of the house, then I would consider buying the property after looking at other factors (location, condition, neighborhood, zoning, etc).In other words, 6 straight months of rent should pay for the house. 

But right now, it feels like I am solely holding these properties just to pay their maintenance company. 

If someone struggles with a non-paying renter, they won't come to the "starting out" forum and read a bunch of stories that may not pertain to them.

I'm wondering if it's worth the crazy labor cost to pay someone to do the work, or if it's a project I could do myself.