I bought a 5 acre property through the tax sale in June and finally getting title work finished.

Of course, that sort of price tag that he pulled out of the air is not logical and just shows me that I cannot be trusting with people without a firm price on all projects. 

Being out of state, you will want an agent who has good relationships with reliable inspectors, title companies, contractors, property managers, lenders, wholesalers, insurance agents, other RE agents, etc.

The "seller" never transferred title and the in-place loan remained in effect.

Food in fridge is from April this year and it basically looks like someone was half way through moving out and then something happened and so a bunch of stuff is still in house. specifically one room filled with about 10 burner phones, 3 tvs, personal clothes, mail, kids personal items and bunch of random stuff new with tags, etc etc. he also had pets which was against lease term. one of the rooms was used as a pet room completely destroying carpet and staining walls with urine etc. 

Thank you @Jay Hinrichs, I actually meant to tag you a bit ago but was working from my cellphone and wouldn’t let me find you.

My book on Turnkey Real Estate Investing - Simple Concepts to Overcome Analysis Paralysis and Acquire Your First Rental Property in 29 Days (this title is a work in progress) should be released before the end of October.

Only one bank account needed, but you'd have to track income & expenses to do transfer and year-end accounting.As @Nathan Gesner mentioned, not really worth it.You two could also open a joint bank account for collecting rent and pay expenses, just be sure to track everything.Do NOT do what @Paul De Luca stated about transferring title!

Contact a title (escrow) office and repeat #3 above. 

The HELOC may or may not disappear, but it will likely be "extinguished" from the property title after auction.After a first mortgage lender forecloses and it's lien is paid off with the proceeds from the sale, any surplus funds from the foreclosure sale are distributed to creditors holding junior liens, like a second mortgage lender or judgment creditor.And by the way, YES you should serve notices prior to entry just to be safe.After you acquire the property, what is the goal?