If your offer is full of stipulations and contingencies, a seller may not care if you offer the highest price because they see you as the least probable to close. 

NAR/CAR ethics stipulate 'Seller is Agent' disclosure in writing on the MLS etc at time of listing because even if Seller is not the Listing Agent, licensed seller/owner may expect and/or receive compensation (ie, gift, referral fee, portion of listing agent's compensation, etc).Thus licensed seller is inherently not strictly limited to being a principal in the transaction, so would have had to disclose seller is licensed agent. 

There are a few stipulations in regards to buying it as a 2nd home in lieu of an investment property.

What are the stipulations behind this?

The wholesaler which is also a realtor stipulated that he is in the process of having the fines reduced by the county prior to closing and having the buyer pay those costs (lien) at closing.

In Texas there is not a notice time frame stipulated in property code (that I know of at least).

Also,  I stipulated I would only accept lease of 1 year...nothing shorter or longer as I'm contemplating change in plans for the property after one year.   

Store her belongings for the stipulated time frame then get rid of them  Evictions should only be last resort.

Although there may be stipulations to qualify

They have obvious stipulations regarding income, DTI, etc.; however, they are available.