The payment date fell on the same day as their pay day.

The next day a nice lady from the home warranty company called to ask if I decided if I was having them do the work or taking the payout.  

There's usually something like a 25k minimum investment, but these guys literally sit around underwriting deals all day. As

Put some money into an experienced RE attorney, and see if you can figure out some way to guarantee ownership, take over paying the current owner's payments and assume the ownership hassles, make some payments directly to the owner, and set a balloon-payment day a couple of years off, when you can refinance and afford to leave some of the cash in the deal.