Am I punishing this seller for running his business smoothly? 

And the common denominator here and for your problems in Detroit is..... tenant selection by.... a PM.Why do you keep punishing yourself? 

Women get "punished" for not being "nice" in ways that men never do.Think about this if you have a daughter.

I need some one who I can trust that will come to work and do a good job... which makes me think, if the contractor builds something and the inspector say's its wrong... does the contractor get monetarily punished ?

"Blocking formerly incarcerated people from accessing stable housing is an extrajudicial punishment not consistent with the rule of law."

If the tenants are on an 18 month lease, you run your analysis using current rents as projected income. this lowers your purchase offer, and punishes the irresponsible landlord for offering an 18 month lease at below market rents when he planned on selling. if the lowest price he is willing to accept is calculated using market rents, then you compare your risk aversion and capability to carry the property at a loss for 18 months to determine if it is worth buying still. likely not depending on how far under market rents are.

I just hope that the tenant can get some sort of fine or punishment for this.

I could claim I overpaid at $800k and I shouldn't be punished tax-wise for overpaying but I have no numbers to back up a claim that the house should be assessed lower than $800k. 

  ABSOLUTELY NOT  1031 has time restrictions to identify and purchase like kind and typically you'll  buy a more valuable and thus more expensive Rev gen property to avoid the punishing penalties paid on the Boot( cash in ha d because you selected an exchange property that was fewer dollars than The sale price of last property go to irs site and read sec 1031 it's been there a hundred years it's really clear 

Legislation is coming down the pipe that will punish the many of us because of the greed of a few.