I’ve tried to do a retreat of A-frames in the mountains but ran into land/engineering issues, multiple times. 

So the more houses we see the more stuff we can pinpoint that will be an issue with the house/property.

After identifying the property’s potential, we negotiated a competitive purchase price of $28,000 by highlighting its renovation needs.

It could be stressful if there is a plumbing or heating issue and you're several hours away. 

.- cost is an issue.

The plan is to provide the tenant with their own stackable laundry in their unit and offer the shed for storage.Is there a legal timeline needed to give such notice or is issuing a new lease best /covers all bases?

That might create some tax issue/book keeping complication.If @Brandon Hall is around, he may be able to clarify if this transferring of funds is a nonissue or a big deal.

@Elliot Rosen, do you understand the issue?

The reason being they did not want to be caught in a lease and have to deal with potential lease issues down the road.

You would want to know if anything was ever built on the land (maybe a house burned down) because if there was a house then you would have potentially buried septic or oil.Buying and holding a lot for the future with topographical issues is only worth it if the price is negligible IMO.