I have great credit, but I would like to avoid shortterm debt costs.I realize that I would loose income by delaying the renovation, but it is often hard to find good tenants in winter anyway.

That have, at best, a loose relationship with the actual value. 

What I say is around the lines of  "you may be aware of not but the the county has listed your property for a tax sale, you can still avoid the tax sale if you pay the taxes before the deadline but if you rather just sale this property, I would like to have the opportunity to buy it from you".I have also considered using the line "I'll buy it from you before you loose it to the tax sale" but I decided against it as it is deceptive and could be seen that way.  

Yes I may loose it, but ive heard of them extending 5x. 

We did this while living off less than your excess income.Once we maxed out loans (Some married people get 10 each, but then again, I had no income.)

so there is a good amount of risk in this plan to loose the house entirely.On the other hand your friend the lender could end up with the property as an REO and then re-deed it back to you. 

When I first paid for excess water usage, I calculated it based on the same quarter the previous year.

It is excessive to deny a new tenant because their prior residence had an infestetion!

Also, a reason not to accept a security deposit from a nonprofit or social service agency is because if you get into a conflict with the tenant, the organization will "advocate" for them, including legally, and may be quite absurd (and incorrect) about the level of "rights" they claim for the tenant, and this is super stressful, and also, now you have a very entitled tenant who thinks you're obligated to put up with all sorts of awful behavior- because they've been erroneously led to believe that they have excessive "rights."   

I’m finally moving forward with purchasing a small duplex with a fair amount of cash reserves and excessive credit card lines thanks to travel hacking (I don’t intend to use them, but it’s nice to have them there).