That can potentially be rentals, real estate syndications, private lending, or other alternative investments. 

Private Lenders/Investors: Tap into private lenders, equity partners, or hard money lenders to finance a deal.3.

Currently, I live in Hawaii, house hacking my own property, and am looking to expand into out-of-state long-term rentals.My goals now are to master the art of wholesaling, continue raising private money, and build a strong portfolio of long-term rentals.

A few of those cautions include the investigation of existing encumbrances on the ground (zoning requirements, existing or proposed easements and assessments, encroachments, etc.), existing site conditions (high ground water, site topography, existing soil types and soil environmental concerns, etc.), the location, depth, and capacity of utilities to service the site - including public utilities (sanitary, storm and water services), franchised utilities (power, gas, cable), capacity of the local streets to accommodate additional traffic from your development...Be sure to find out if there are any specific local ordinances you need to satisfy (possible tree & wetland surveys, together with any necessary tree & landscape or wetland mitigation plans) and whether there are any concerns from municipal departments (e.g. hydrant locations from the fire department, storm inlet and retention requirements, as well as asphalt / concrete road requirements from the engineer), entrance requirements from the road commission (left turn and passing lanes at the site entrance), etc.Once you get past all this you can finally prepare a preliminary site plan and enter the political arena to get preliminary site plan approval, and to address any concessions the board and neighbors want from you to overcome their objections to your development.

I attend 3-5 meetups monthly and we have local meetup https://www.cirpp-live.com/ been arounds since 1974 and we meet twice a month (one network night at local spot food, drinks, socialize and one day 1130am-1pm guest speaker and food at I-Hotel on campus) that have found vendors, private lenders, etc.

They sit empty because the costs to update them to code make a project unfeasible for private money. 

Research financing options like conventional loans, FHA loans, owner financing, or private lenders.Good luck!

Talk with her previous landlords on how is she as a tenant and investigate as to why she would have change apartments. 

This reads like fraud...Mortgage fraud is investigated by the FBI and punishable by up to 30 years in prison and/or a fine of $1,000,000 --- (link)Bryan, there are perfectly legal solutions to your problem, call anytime.

However, an option holder won’t be able to stop a private sale from occurring (unless they find out about it before hand and obtain an injunction); the option holder would most likely need to initiate legal action after the fact.