If you cannot delay gratification, you are unlikely to be successful in anything because most things in life that are deeply satisfying - getting fit, getting an advanced education, moving deeply through a career, achieving financial success, etc - takes a lot of time and effort and requires sacrificing many short-term niceties and pleasures for long-term achievement. 

The fact is that the selling price of a lot might be $12,000-15,000, while a house sells for $200-300,000 and the effort involved might be the same.

Try to focus on the time, and effort portion of the decision.

I would think besides the bureaucracy of splitting, the most effort in this scenario is maybe utilities require splitting.  

If you truly want to be taken seriously in this business, you're going to have to put in a bit more effort.

They're supposed to make a reasonable effort to find a new tenant—and when they do, you're no longer on the hook for rent going forward.From: https://flip.lease/learn/breaking-a-lease-early/mitigating-damages-in-coloradoA Landlord in Colo is not allowed to "double-dip" in the collection of rent from former tenants.

The LL is in the wrong, but you have been minimally harmed (some lost time and effort, maybe application fees).   

Where should we be focusing our efforts?

I wound up putting in the time/effort to educate myself, make connections and take action. 

My handyman couldn’t even get paint today because the machine at Home Depot couldn’t mix it thanks to the CrowdStrike software update that caused a global tech outage.