But, the practical solution seems to be having a second meter installed next to the current one, feeding from the same water line.  

It seems like a waste of time to go through all that is necessary to obtain and maintain your license when your only goal would be having access to the MLS and listing your own property to save some commission.

We will be having a REIA meeting next Wednesday (the 6th) at 6:30 PM over at Lonestar over by Menards if you want to meet several other Columbia folks.Take care,Jeff GalenJMD Properties

A real squatter would not behave like they have a right to be there. 

Also again I might be mistaken but YOU can't do the transaction and 3rd party would need to handle that on your behave.

We will be having our first Meet and Greet next week.

I do not know them, but I can suppose that they have lost their job, or something similar, because, in my opinion, the situation is not common, why tenants who used to behave perfectly have been stoped paying the rent ?

He's selling it to me for 80k  I may be able to get him to let be have it 75-78  or both of them for 140k.  

Do you think bank or other lender would finance 4 rentals if I am not working here and won't be having any other income then from these rentals.

You can do this by search the groups, associations, or collections of different professionals in your city of metro area like SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS, COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS, NETWORK ENGINEERS, COMPUTER DEVELOPERS, REGISTERED NURSES, MEDICAL ASSISTANTS, PHARMACISTS, DOCTORS, SOFTWARE ENGINEERS, DATABASE ADMINISTRATORS, SQL DEVELOPERS, JAVA DEVELOPERS, and other good paying professionals you can think of.These are guys earning good salaries who have the cash now, and may be having credit problems because of past financial problems that affected their credits, banks will not borrow them money to buy houses.The guys in these groups  are your best target for lease option deals, good luck.