Suppose the moral of the story is either proceed with caution and really really know what you are getting into and what your exit strategy might should the lease be cancelled or walk away!

I went to work for them because I looove how their moral compass is set.

Moral of the story is you should have followed thru.

@Symphonie Morales   Sometimes the tenants are like that, just take it as your accelerate class on landlording,  @Deanna McCormick is right,  offer an incentive to leave and not be available all the time, give them a letter on how they need to contact you and what is and what is not urgent and what by law you have to fix

The real estate investor in you says this is a great deal.However, this deal has nothing to do with real estate and everything to do with your own values and morals.

The moral of the story is the "offer-counteroffer" format with the selling agent sitting in the middle is flawed. 

The moral of my story, from this layman, is that getting a HELOC in the Central Valley may not be the way to go.

The moral to this is to have a strategy to eventually "Go big or go home!"

Paying taxes could be cheaper than not paying them and racking up fines/penalties/interest etc; maybe it has to do with their overall tax strategy; maybe it's on auto pay; maybe someone else is paying and doesn't realize the actual condition of the property; maybe the person has a strong moral compass and feels it's the right thing to do...But if you trying to find contact info... the tax bill gets sent somewhere to someone and it's obviously a good address if they keep paying it. 

This is NOT ok, but what many will do.You are essentially acting as a broker in this situation rather than a cash buyer, so why not just get a RE license so that you can legally and morally act like a broker and be totally honest and transparent about what you are doing?