The tenet sent me some pictures and the good news is that the mold is green/white in color and not black.

I now have a partner, that's been working on picking up the other 4 one at a time, so, that we control the whole block.

What color jump suits do they use in GA. orange or yellow?

SOOOOO. theres a house on my block thats been vacant for a while . the lady that lived in it passed, her son who was older was living there as well. i went to the house this morning to ask if he might be intersted in selling... i knock on the door of course no one answers, the mail box is jammed packed with old mail and i see that the mail is registered to someone with a differant name. i check public records not to much more info to go on. how do i find out who really owns the house and how can i track them down

Philly is a block by block city and if you invest on the wrong block your screwed!

@Sam Valme if you call, I would first do *67 so your number is blocked.  

Don't be a passive investor, get off the letter writing thing, stop licking stamps, or mailing letters regardless of the color, get out there on the street, be proactive and find the deal. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated, this is a test I'd like to pass with flying colors.

One thing about Troy and Schenectady, beware of taxes, and beware of the block you're looking into, both those cities have some beautiful downtown areas, yet one or two blocks away are gang shootings and crackhouses, so definitely look at street-level comps, doing the standard comp within 1/2 mile can give you hugely varying property values.  

Schools are scored at a 9 out of 10 and a block from where this house is a SFH sold for just over 250k.