The owner of the home is from a family friend, parents past away and kids just wants to let the property go.

Yes, you are missing a lot unless your choice is between buying a home and living in a van by the river, in your parent's basement or under the overpass. 

We want to purchase my parents a home to move them out of their current place where they are renting (both parents are in their early 70's).

A lot of kids my age want to move out of their parents houses and I'm wondering if house hacking is the move and having buddy's pay rent and move in. 

I have 2 dependents and will be the primary caregiver for both my parents and his parents as they age so we want to hustle now so we aren't stressed financially by these responsibilities in 10-15years and are able to maintain the standard of living we have achieved with income from our (now) primary business. 

My parents helped me buy this property back in 2021 because they wanted to see me benefit from some of my inheritance money and this is what we agreed on.

Assuming you are married gifting each child 36k a year is a wonderful start.   

And on top of that (and to make a long story short) my ex-wife stole more than $800k from me when we split and we are in a nasty child custody case which costs a crap load of money.

I know it's possible to have a parent cosign, but is it also possible to just find off market deals?

For example I purchased my first property from my parents in TX and I'm making 0% COC return.