From there, you will have a better sense for how to proceed with portfolio expansion.  

Depending on the circumstances, it's very possible that you're not able to cashout refi the property and you'll want to proceed with a different strategy.Buying in cash is probably cleanest.

It's the same everywhere.Just include in your offers a term that the seller pay your agent from their proceeds. 

Acting in fealty unto seller, upon receiving such request/demand from a potential buyer listing agent would connect with seller(s), communicate such desire/demand, and seek seller(s) directives as to how to proceed. 

Then a decision can be made whether or not to proceed based on the final approval. 

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I should proceed/ how much time I should give them to “apply” before I provide them with a new lease to sign?

As the new owner, list the property pay off existing mortgage, second mortgage and recoup the proceeds My question is, would this be considered a novation and would an attorney or title company draw something  like this up?

I understand the processor bankruptcy caused a big disruption but it also seems like FTF (Upright) was overly leveraged because they've proceeded mass sell their loan book, which means if you held one of the loans that will be sold you will receive no interest until due diligence is completed and possibly a hit to principal depending on the final price the buyer pays. 

If you proceed with upgrading the panel add enough capacity to charge an electric car and put in baseboard heaters so you wont' have to do this again if you decide to add either of those options down the road. 

You can't arbitrarily decide that you don't want to allocate any of the proceeds to the portion of the property that will create Ordinary income recapture (thus can't be included in the installment sale treatment) - it should technically be allocated amongst all the assets in accordance with their fair market value at the time of the sale.