If you decide to pursue this option be sure to EXPLICITLY spell out how the maintenance of the buildings will be handled as these types of facilities tend to be hard on property from my experience.

@William Taylor so many options...Use your RE knowledge to: WholesaleFind rental deals to sell to investors locally or here on BPStart leveraging your personal contacts to build your sales businessFind a motivated seller willing to do seller financing:- Move in worst room or basement, rent out all the other rooms for max cashflow- You could even live in the basement and STR the rest of the house

This second defeat at the ballot seemingly left WIP with few options, and it was looking like they way overpaid for this land that in it's current legal state could only be used as a golf course or park. 

Starting with a smaller property or a few fix-and-flip projects can help you build equity, gain credibility with lenders, and better understand the process before scaling up.Securing funding for larger projects can be challenging without prior experience, but options like hard money loans might be worth exploring.

Reach out to a loan broker with your exact info and the exact or at least type of property you want to buy and they should have options and opinions. 

But if you are really set on RE you may want to explore options of borrowing against them or taking cash out early.

I would focus on improving your credit and obtaining a more stable income so that conventional financing is an option. 

In this instance what I would do is get the deed in lieu from the borrower so you ahve the property again and get a note from them but have an attorney draft it to see if you can include a confession of judgment - meaning if they do not pay then you can get a quick judgment and possibly garnish wages.I would also have them put a small down payment as part of the note and only accept a check that way if you ever did garnish you have a copy of a check so you know where they bank.unfortunately you are right they can stop paying on the note and its unsecured so its a risk but out of all the options this is your best option.

One option I haven't noticed being mentioned is to auction it.

Either would be a great option; I'd probably choose Roseville because it's more established, but the City of Elk Grove deserves a lot of credit for its impactful growth programs, so it wouldn't be a bad option.