The back taxes are because she was claiming homestead exemption on 2 houses. 

I was reading up on the transfer tax in Philadelphia and it states in an area of the law that a transfer from a parent to a child is tax-exempt.

However higher property taxes when combined with a possible loss of homestead exemption will increase your monthly carrying costs on the property.If your plan is to return in 5 years then you may want to run some calculations on the carrying cost of the property versus what you think a similar (or same) property might be worth in 5 years.

Her credit’s been shot since 10 years ago, a divorce, credit cards, and medical issues.New auction scheduled end of April.

I currently work for a very large medical products company as a Project Manager for our Chinese Manufacturing facility.  

Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:@Brie Schmidt  was thinking that could be a major help when house hacking.. like in some states the difference in tax's can be 50% No... in 2013 it was a $478 exemption on a $5000 tax bill and 2014 was $493 on a $7500 tax bill

We asked a CPA for advice and they told us that if we can satisfy a transfer/sale of the property from my father in-laws name into ours, we would get a $250k tax exemption. 

There is an automatic 25k exemption but some county tax collectors still require you to file a form to request the exemption.  

He is a VP at a large consumer office products company and I am a project manager at a Fortune 100 Medical products company.  

Medical bills?