So I was at my first rental today doing a little touch up, when the neighbor came over to talk with my tenant. In a nutshell, she has her house here and another in Puerto Rico. She kicked out her husband and he fled to the house in Puerto Rico, now they are splitting and he wants the Florida house sold and half of the equity. Oh and he wants the house in Puerto Rico - from what I understand fared the hurricane well. 

So she feels forced to sell but is going to do it. I want another house and can't get over how great it would be to have 2 side - by - side. Not that it's happened, but I worry about neighbor problems. 

It seems like a solid basic house : slab, block walls, single story, post-lead paint construction, and town water (wells are a Pita). It sounds cliche to say but it literally is extremely close to all sorts of stuff - it's got all that and not only does it have no HOA is somehow unincorporated county land. It even has 1 less level of government ruling overhead!

The kitchen would be a gut, but over the 5 years I have never heard her complain about a meaningful problem with the house. 

Her ex mentioned seeing it was worth $125K online which would be a bit tough considering it needs a new kitchen, and even though I've been inside a couple times I don't even know if it's 1 or 2 baths (Zillow & Realtor say different things) 

Oh I'd love to have two contiguous properties!  2 more after that and I can replace them with a hotel, right? 

And this happens the day I sign my docs for my HELOC. Coincidence?

That's great. Good luck with it! Sounds like you were in the right place at the right time :) 

And, yes, it would be cool if "Monopoly Rules" were real. 4 houses then a hotel :) 

First off, I don't understand why BP doesn't show me notifications of replies to threads I create.

Second, today my real estate agent and I were liking at properties and we stopped by to see if she'd like to sell. My problem is that I do not want her to sell at all.  She has 2 houses; this and the one in Puerto Rico her ex now lives in.  Both are paid off. The PR house somehow survived the storms fine but is worth less than this Florida house. The judge in their divorce is making them split the properties equally which means that she will have to pay him $20K. I asked if she could take out a loan on the property to pay him back and she said she couldn't. The judge's final decision will be in August.

She loves her house, and she gets along great with my tenant who lives next door. She's even interested in renting it if she had to sell and sells it to me. That would be a bit awkward honestly. I'd rather pass on this and see her find a way to keep her house.

Understood. But... if you are concerned about her ‘well being’ and she has to sell, wouldn’t you rather she sold to you instead of someone else? Maybe she sells to you to pay the Ex and you write a lease to own with her so she gets it back over time?