Barely a week later, I meet 'wife's mother (who flew in from the midwest) at door who explained her daughter's boyfriend needs to stop lying to people, that his real situation is they're not yet married and were living in a converted garage and he left the kids home alone while wife was also at work and police were called because one of the kids somehow was found alone wandering the streets and subsequently placed in foster care til she (mother's mother) came to LA area to file for being their legal guardian in the interim.That LA Child Services would not release the kids back to the parents, but agreed to place the kids with a relative if the relative owned or had a lease on an apartment within Los Angeles County, so he found my Signal Hill 2-bedroom apartment (in my 2-family house) for her since they could not use the converted garage as a safe home for daughter's mother to take over the 'lease' on.  

So I would guess that a lot of land lords like me scour craigslist trying to get things 50% of new / retail.But Craigslist can be a bit dodgy.Just the other day when i was trying to source just the right sized fridge, I found an older lady on Craigslist who had such a fridge that she was unloading from an estate from her recently deceased mother.

She said she personally didn't have the lease/wasn't sure of the terms and that the person who did works 3rd shift and I'd need to stop by later (I believe it's her mother in law).

My mother is an RE agent and has a client looking for a home and there really isn't anything on the market in a neighborhood they like with a layout they like.

On the other property, the buyer bailed because it was a single mother with a child.

My father is 53 my mother is 56.

I will come out  and say I am not your mother so I am not coming by to tell you to put out the garbage, you will get a  notice of non-compliance with the lease for violations, I will charge late fees etc.

It might make things easier too if your mother were to join you in the purchase of the half interest and both of you qualify for a the loan.

My mother and step-father are real estate agents.

I would put down using your VA loan for example and save all of your cash.Taking care of your mother takes time.