I'm married with two children and I've been listening to the BP Podcast and learning a lot about real estate.

I would be trying for wholesale to hold myself or wholesale to close. if you can grab properties for 50% of fair market value your going to win ether way.I can how ever give you knowledge of the area as I lived there for 4 years.Places I would invest in.Doctor Phillips, Winter Garden, Hunters Creek, Lake Marry and Metro West.

Something important for you to understand is the Section 121 exclusion which allows you to exclude $250k ($500k if married filing joint) of capital gains on a primary residence as long as you have lived there for two of the previous five years.

My husband lived 3 blocks from the condo before we got married and the area seems to be improving, so no war zone.  

I guess it's kind of like never getting married after a bad 1st marriage, but is the extra hassle worth it?  

There are scenarios that you can avoid some taxes, for instance, if your mother gifted you the house and you were to live in in it for at least two years, you would avoid paying capital gains taxes up to allowable limits (married vs. single). 

I'm looking to take over a mortgage and the title search shows that the sole owner, per the filed deed, was married and divorced during the period of ownership but the ex was never on the deed.  

Some additional thoughts to consider that you may already know but which I discovered in the course of doing this myself:- From an income tax perspective, if you sell a home that you've lived in for two of the last 5 years, any profits you realize are tax free, up to I believe $250k if single and $500k if married.  

When my wife and I got married we said we would never be landlords and never live in a house we were fixing up, both of which we have done.

Married with kids.