My plan is to visit the house tomorrow to verify that it is vacant.

Hello @Cerrion Smith, welcome to the site!

Another advantage to you buying property back home is when you visit for the holiday's you can potentially write off your travel and cost of stay as property management costs.

This may lessen your down payment requirement, AND give you a place to stay when you visit.

Is there any reliable sites that anyone has found to find available grants?

Each site has varying posting rules which doesn’t make it easy or fun but necessary to get the word out.

@Tom Gimer  just like buying with Auction . com once you have an accepted offer you CANNOT change vestings even though I have bought ( well lets say a bunch of them off of this site) I have to follow the rules and I don't like it because I like to change entities occasionally as funds clear up in one LLC... 

Location has much to do with it of course but for the most part people are always visiting Miami, especially in the summer.

Originally posted by @Ihe O.

There are other room sharing sites if you google around.