Also, 95% of my business was coming from Airbnb, so I ditched VRBO/HomeAway altogether and haven't been sorry. 

Usually when you replace a sewer , you are only opening up about 4 ft wide at the house , and unless its a full basement with a bathroom the ditch is only about 4 ft deep on average .  

I know I'd need permits to add an additional driveway over the drainage ditch between the road and I've already contacted contractors and the county for water and septic information so my main concern is the separation of the land I want to keep using from the tenants. 

USREEB also agreed to fix the minor items on my repair list including the grading around the house and drainage ditch in the backyard. 

Sounds to me, like the developer ditched the 24 units, built 7 apartments just to save the deal, now wants to sell the 24 unit project.

.- As a last ditch scenario, if I can only secure 1 property for whatever reason, I'd put the entire $140k into it, and get a mortgage on the rest (likely around $200k on the mortgage). 

I suppose if you are in a situation where there are absolutely no other potential applicants and on the verge of defaulting on your mortgage it could be a last ditch effort however with other options renting to new immigrants dependant 100% on charity seems to be a crazy decision.

I'd vote on ditching the negatively geared property.

I'm certainly no exert in this area so any helpful comments to keep my cart out of the ditch would be helpful.Doug

Remember, if you informally make it an inlaw (no permits) and you get a notice of violation (example, a neighbor or disgruntled tenant can easily turn you in) then you are really screwed: the city will force you to legalize that unit, and you won’t be able to just ditch it, or merge it into the main house (some political issue of reducing housing units.)