While it's rare to get both the price and terms you want, there might be room for compromise.

I'm not giving advice on the specific deal because I have not done this either, but I hope you know what you are doing.It sounds like you made a pile of compromises because you don't have enough money to actually purchase the property.

To the best of my knowledge, the current owners experienced a flash flood about a decade ago and it compromised the basement. 

I'd be putting down about 40% on each, which is more than I usually like to, but it seems like it would be a good compromise between your conservative approach and my aggressive one.  

Learn to screen instead.Brandon Turner's book Managing Rental Properties is helpful.Establish a screening process that excludes not includes, keep tuning it, learn Free Housing Rules and don't compromise. 

You'll have to compromise and fit into their system. 

Never compromise with tenants.

There is no confirmation that the email belong to that person, that that person is the only one having access to that email, that that email has not been compromised in any breach...I don't mind using docusign for minor contract for convenience, however, for anything of major value I would not trust it.I don't understand why these companies have not expanded their service with a real identity verification service to assign certificates to individuals that would be recognized by the industry as a secure way of validating electronic signature.I could see local bar association or realtor association issuing digital token certificate to their verified members as a add on service value.

There may need to be compromises made to make a deal happen, but every client and person is different.

The other beams running from the center piers out to the perimeter seals are what's compromised, one has been sistered and is still failing.