Maybe I’m missing something in your pictures.

The pet thing is something that will be tricky to navigate and it may be something you have to deal with at first, however, moving forward set your own rules to your liking.

Just like the asking price, just because the owner suggests one interest rate or term doesn't mean you can't offer something different. 

If you have ever learned something important by trial and error, then you can probably understand the frustration that you feel when you make a "rookie mistake" or a simple error that creates a big negative result.

A way to look at it could be to find buyers first and figure out their buy box and after that go out and hunt for deals for them and run it by them when you find something.

Still, I think you'd find it difficult to find one that would be a good long-term investment unless you had another ~20-30 years to go, it's at least cash neutral, and you don't plan to hold it too long (to avoid too much investment loss and before you get to the point where it's unsellable because of too few years left); that's another way of saying that maybe it suits your cash needs in the near-term or is at least less of a pill to swallow than other options until you find something that's more of a sensible long-term play

I wanted to think of something clever, but wasn't coming up with much.

Would you be looking for a "fixer upper" type property or something with little to no rehab (aka "turn-key")?

His admin calls the vendors if it is something he and his crew can't handle.

So yes, it's definitely something you need to be careful with.