There's nothing here I can do here, right?

[Bob R.]

So an acquaintance of mine rents their home.   Their landlord passed away.  The landlords ex-wife is named on the mortgage, but not on the deed.  It's in probate now but the expectation is that because she's on the mortgage the house will be deeded to her.  She was not expecting this and does not want to keep the house.  The acquaintance is paying the rent to the ex-wife and starting to look for a new place.  The ex-wife has talked with the bank about doing a deed in lieu when the time comes, but i don't think that is allowed with deed in lieus because i think that only works as your primary residence as far as I understand and even if it did i think the amount would be taxed as income so she'd have an unexpected tax bill.

The house is under water.  The mortgage was a 10 year arm with wells fargo.  The mortgage amount is ~174k.  the house is worth roughly about 145k currently.  The bubble for the arm is in april of 2017.

The tenant (acquaintance) would want to stay if something was worked out.  The tenant would maybe even be interested in purchasing it or doing a lease/option situtaion.  They have their own longstanding business and great credit, but have been denied loans from lenders recently due to  some debt on the business.

This seems like a crazy situation, I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to profit here, but other than negotiating a shortsale i can't see it.  

My wife is a realtor, but never done a short sale.  Anyone able to see some way to work this situation?  or no real opportunity here?