With the help of my local partners, I found solutions to these three issues that I’m going to use in my own development.

You get to be creative and come up with win-win solutions.

I agree with trying Zillow and also add your property on ALE Solutions' website.

It will take some work to find something that works, but like @John Underwood said, a fixer upper could be the solution.

You have a solution looking for a problemMaybe this guy is savy enough, or had his accountant run the numbers, and taxation isn’t a problem like my personal example.  

Perhaps if they were mostly through their lease I would use the opportunity to sign a fresh lease with no increase as the solution and show them they will save $$$ over any planned increase or just give them a week's free rent or something.

They definitely didn't force me into any predesigned solutions but took what I was looking for and made recommendations.

The outside drain still has some cast iron pipe with some small tree roots in it and I plan to get a plumber to clean and reline the pipes with that blue stuff.

Hi Kimhave you found any solution I am also looking for something like you mentioned. 

Take a look at this blog post, you may be able to better understand your seller, anticipate their pain point and provide a solution they haven't considered.