Essentially the same offense, vastly different outcomes on paper.

I'm not desperate to fill the vacancy yet; however, I'm willing to work with someone who on paper is showing she has turned things around.

Your young twenties, so with this you’ll have a good car (with no note) for the next 5yrs or so; you’ll be able to House Hack (if you want), then do it again, all while keeping your cash flow up.And if you keep pulling your money out (for example with the BRRR strategy like they teach here in BP), and with increasing cash flow, you serious have the opportunity to be a Millionaire on paper with a six figure yearly positive cash flow by your mid to late 30’s...

No paper.

It seems on paper that I am better off because I am leveraging but in reality I am worse off because I am being inefficient.On the flipside wouldn't I be better off instead of having 20 MF units leveraged having 3 higher end single family houses  paid off?

If he has enough for 25% down on houses in California, he certainly has enough to spend an hour with a real estate attorney and have the attorney draw up the proper papers.

If you truly gave them your best offer, and they didn't bite and are 100% opposed to holding any type of paper, you need to appeal to the emotional side as opposed to the analytical.  

There was another method you can use Being that you are dealing with criminals you may wanna see about your local police station serving the paperwork ( oddly enough many do this for a nominal fee) because this will really upset these guys if they see somebody that’s in law-enforcement coming out to the house and serving the papers. it will make them very nervous and they may want to leave altogether or comply

If there is any paper trail whatsoever, to be safe, you should not just take it without confirming its considered abandoned.

I think your problem is been too cheap, stop looking at the numbers on paper and buy something nice.