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We are considering which families will sign a longer lease and who are more likely to fulfill the lease agreement. 

Live in one unit, convert another to a vacation rental, after two years your obligation to the contract will be fulfilled. 

For example:Purchase: $10-30kInitial Improvements: $10kARV = $50kLease is fulfilled (i.e. tenant is in the property)Appropriate length of Time before approaching the bank to REFI = ?

If not, I'm not sure they would have fulfilled their end of the bargain anyways given how they've behaved to this point.

It is likely that if it completed foreclosure that the other financial claims on the property have been either fulfilled or resolved (the exception being property taxes in many states and certainly in NC).

Each of the leases that I took over have been fulfilled and have moved to month to month.

They will act as a clearing house, making sure both sides fulfill their obligations and making sure you get clean title with no strings attached.

.) --- In this strategy you are able to achieve multiple goals -- the tenant feels like they have options, are in control and could save some $ by fulfilling the requirements - and you get your rent increase and achieve a pressing goal to further streamline your operation.

Although, you may think 'well if it's a roll of the dice then I'll take my chances' -- you can actually have issues later if you were to try to evict the tenant because technically they did pay your rent for a full year already - sure you can try to 'refund' the money to complete the eviction - IF a judge allows it, they may not and you may need to fulfill your end of the deal which is to provide the tenant with a home for the time that they have paid and may not be allowed to evict. ---- In most cases, if the judge allows an eviction (which I believe most would), you will certainly have to refund the remaining funds to the tenant up to the time that you can reasonably find a new one.