I've been pulling some from the web but I'm just trying to make sure that I'm thinking of everything.

Hi @Kyle Snoozyhave you tried your local county / city web site they should have information on the property.

Also you can search for the tax parcel number on your country web site to see if you can find the owner's new address. 

@Adrian Chu I hadn't considered condos that have HOAs, but that makes sense that they would take care of a lot of external repairs.

If you decide to make all the paperwork a good start might be to visit the web of the Secretary of State in California ( http://www.sos.ca.gov/).

I would recommend a couple of other books, very cheap on Amazon and other web sites.That $50,000 would buy you a rental in many US markets. 

If you are looking for the least expensive and something where you don't need to physically go into a bank, you may want to try Capital One as they do have physical locations (in some states), but they are primarily online web based.

The source of the water is external and can be remedied with a sump pumb/perimeter drainage inside as well as a dry well outside.

I love, love, Marion County's willingness to put all sorts of property related info on the web.

There is a lot of good and useful information on their web site, so I recommend reading it all.