I would also recommend doing some reasearch on Facebook and calling references, etc to make sure they are as ‘nice’ as they seem.

I would refer this question right back to your lender. 

In this context, to go "through the estate" for a full step-up, the property had to be held by your client's mother outright (or possibly in a revocable trust).When an heir is referring to the property as their "grandmother's" when they inherited if from their mother's estate, it is worth checking the ownership carefully.

@Whitney Breedlove yes that is the one I was referring to 😊

From there you can validate and cross reference info with city data site and govt sites.  

There are several of us who can help you, do your due diligence, search for previous discussions, review references, then speak with two or three service providers.

His only solutions were always “lower the rent” and like the others couldn’t do / find people to do work.

I would stay away unless you find a good reliable reference  that has personally used them with success.

The area you're talking about I refer to as "Where out of state investors go to die."

I'm asking this both for the situation at hand, and for future reference.