Understand that a caretaker is a service that you will pay for. 

Which is fine if you are willing to pay and get enough value from it.

I'm new to this concept, but I've heard insurances will pay recently for displaced families.  

Also seen the opposite where decent lot, decent price, looked clean, but when I got there must have been $100,000 in cleanup needed with all kind of trash and junk on that lot.I've never been to Harris county auction, but from what I understand they have multiple auctions and maybe even different locations depending on the precinct, so know where to go if you can.At one time there was a lady that would offer orientations at Harris county maybe 1 hour before the auction starts.When you are ready to bid, know how to pay. 

If you want to find people who will try to help you lose your money, telling them how much money you have and where you will be is a good way to start.You are limiting yourself way too much by focusing on LA, but with $2 million to burn you could likely find some good cash flow if you are paying cash, but you don't sound like the management type just from this.

Here to pay it forward, let me know how I can help!

She's been renting it for $2,800/month and the condo has a $600 monthly HOA.I want to offer her $350,000 for the condo (its a fair price for it), 5% down payment ($17,500) and pay her monthly $2,000 for 3 years, after which I would refinance and pay her out.

We have a 480k mortgage on it, we have a 400k heloc as well that I use for investment purchases and then refinance after we fix up to pay the heloc off.

I have the capacity to take on an additional $200K in debt on top of utilizing my HELOC, so long as when I am paying it down the monthly charges also go down.

Pay penalties and interest if state comes back.