Remember you don't have to own a property to control it.Download BP’s newest book here some good due diligence in Chapter 10.

Is an LLC a practical requirement to investing in buy-and-hold with a partner? 

You can control insurance expenses by adjusting your level of coverage.

Question: How can I control the property & keep the exiting HELOC in place but prevent the seller from utilizing additional credit from the HELOC?

If your purchasing properties in a local business entity you will have more control over your tax structure and more financing options.It is always a pleasure to network with new investors so feel free to connect with me and if I can be of any assistance let me know.

Please let us know if you would like us to consider this as we have an older system that is not user friendly, and we would expect that it would require a number of programming hours and quality control hours to develop."

Since they were drawn up by attorneys for the state of CO, my using them does not constitute practicing law.

I know real estate is highly regulated and I don't want to end up in trouble for practicing RE without a license, as happened here:  http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/1847...What sort of deal would be reasonable to propose to the real estate agent handling the sale, or to the owner?

You cannot take things back, you can only do damage control once problems come to the surface.

The prior action might even have made things more difficult if a large amount of back payments were in a repayment plan that would likely require payment now.As for gaining control of his estate, you need to decide if it makes sense (if there is lots of equity remaining after payment of debts) and if you are the best choice for resolving this, especially if you have the financial resources and understanding to resolve.If you don't think you are up to these challenges, you won't have to be concerned with either repairing the house or the debt.