That reason may give you a clue on what your potential success will be.  

Think about going to see there office most lenders do the appraisal and when its done they charge you .. they dont have you send the money up front.. but maybe some do.but worse case scenario if they don't fund your only out 950.00 but many do this and also have non refundable EM thinking the deal is going to close and they lose that as well. that's why reputable lenders are very important to keep you from losing 1 to 5k on a fake lender or more  and again I have no clue about this company.. just say in  how the fake lenders operate and what your risks are 

Google is “active intent” and unlikely to yield people that you should be targeting:These people are those with big problems that they are either not capable or unwilling to solve that you are skilled at resolving.Go for the obvious: foreclosure, defaulted taxes and tired landlords, IN THAT ORDER.Leave probate and title opportunities for later when you can handle longer timelines between paydays.

Helped solve a need for the owners and gave them an opportunity to be real estate investors without having to get their hands dirty How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

The best thing you can do for yourself is to learn as you do and solve problems a long the way.

The opportunities come from solving a problem or combination of problems that others cannot or are not willing to solve themselves.

Thanks Stevo, I appreciate the reply and you could do it that way however, it doesnt really solve the problem of a potential runaway water bill from say a toilet left running while the tenant is on vacation somewhere or some other problem where water is left on or leaking.

We're booked solid for thanksgiving, Christmas, new years and ski season, but I was surprised at how empty we are the rest of the year (something that we are currently working to solve for).If I was to buy another property in the area, I would not go larger than a 4/3 and may even be more open to 3/2s as smaller properties are also more likely to cater to families vs single partiers.As it stands, as a mountain, with Stratton you can't go wrong.

Do I contact a title search company or a real estate attorney to begin solving this “issue”?

You can't count on believing that the family member will not produce a handwritten lease (real or not), or other paperwork & tactics, to throw a big old wrench in your initial/expected timeline.You CAN expect that if they see you as the big old rich/developer/bad guy enemy, they will do as much damage as they can, and drag their feet as long as possible.See if you can feel out what the relative actually wants/ needs, connect/come prepared with info on resources for local "housing help" options, etc (perhaps), and figure out what you can do to solve the problem (cash for keys with an incentive for quicker move out timeframe?