Buy a house from elderly couple who aren't ready to move

[Michael Baldus]

I wonder if anyone can tell me methods that have been successful for offering to purchase a SFH from a couple who are looking at selling in the not-to-distant future, but don't know when yet.

Here's the scenario: I own a 4-plex next door to an elderly couple, and the driveway is shared. Due to topography and a utility pole, this driveway will always be shared. There is no Ingress-Egress easement in place, but we plan to discuss the terms of one soon. The couple have made it clear that they don't want to make any more improvements to their property because they don't know how long they can remain in the home.

Their lot is too small for a modern garage. The original garage is 11' wide and sits right on my property line. So the garage is usable only for a small car, and if the garage were over 50% damaged, there will be NO option for a garage under current laws. This will limit the potential buyers (and there are other circumstances that will give people pause).

Although the neighborhood is in a slightly upward transition, most of the immediate surrounding housing is rental, and likely to remain that way for the near future (big old houses converted to apartments, and a couple of former mansion sites that have urban renewal apartment buildings - cheap).

I am concerned that the primary market for their house will be rental, with the potential for tenants to block the driveway, causing conflicts with my tenants. So I would like to purchase the house for a fair price to control the environment.

I plan to try to get first right of refusal into the easement negotiations, but I wonder if anyone knows of other options. They probably won't like the idea of my buying their home now and renting it back to them (but you never know).  Frankly, I don't like the idea myself.  I don't want to be the guy who evicts an elderly couple from their home of 30+ years should things go wrong.

Any other ideas? 

Mike