My best projects are usually taking a dated home and cleaning it up with interior cosmetic renovations.

Was a drug addict but allegedly clean for 5 years.

We were planning $600/mo mortgage payment, $100/mo insurance & $100/mo taxes - balloon payment in 5 yrs.We are providing $5k to pay back taxes ($4k), back hoa ($125), pump septic & grease trap clean out ($225), survey ($600)  & our children are paying closing costs ($1500).Deal stalled as owner backed out on seller finance.Suggestions?

If the background check and credit check come back clean, then I approve the tenant and walk them through setting up online payments.

Clean them really well with something like TSP and use an enamel paint and let it fully cure.Renos for a rental vs your own home or resale are a bit different.

The disadvantages in my opinion are the meeting and greeting and cleaning up after people. there is more management involved and what would happen to your profits if you hired the duty out? 

Here's the message from RentRedi: "During a routine review, our payment processor came across a transaction that they must do additional verification on.There was a transaction (#20) under cardholder name XXXXXXX  (amount: XXXXXXX).As this cardholder name doesn't match the tenant name (XXXXXXXXXXXX), further information is required about the cardholder:- Lease agreement - Cardholder name:- Billing address:- Cardholder phone number:- How the cardholder is associated with the tenant:Once this information is provided, I will relay this to the payment processor for review." 

Your only option now is to come up with the money to buy the place or come clean and admit everything to the owner.

I want to avoid holding costs with him holding onto it while we renovate, but how to I make this as clean as possible?

But if you allow tenants to have pets it is not maintenance free and needs to be cleaned/sprayed down etc.