Poor people have low value (to worthless) things, and things that are not are financed.Written into a lease or not, I still think (Trying) to take something of value from these people will result in a physical fight or a gun being pulled.Texas is a hard to collect state, but turning a smoke stained 11 year old big screen into $100 at the pawn shop hardly seems worth the drama/effort/personal risk.Some people will kill each other over McDonalds Chicken nuggets being out of stock--you never know how people will react to this.

If not, are there any alternative strategies that I could consider to get this done as a long-distance investor?

The seller needs: docket summary when they filed, name address and phone if possible of the lien, tenacity to go there with the docket summary and final release to get lien release (form from title) signed and notarized today.

I am hot on the trail of the notary that did stamped and notarized my signature and I was 2k miles away. 

You're working really hard to rationalize your profit.Again, the way to move forward is to run this by your broker - and maybe even by your local Realtor's board's legal counsel to be safe (assuming they'll answer that sort of thing - they may not)  If I were your broker (and I'm not), I'd want a very plainly worded letter, drafted by your attorney, signed and notarized by the Personal Representative of the estate and all of the heirs that the fair market value of the property is $100,000 and they are willing to accept $60,000 as a means of selling it quickly, and that they explicitly reject your recommendation of listing it on MLS for $80,000. 

The ones that have not are in the process.

Call them out on their slow response time.The agent is concerned that this deal will be killed by some sort of back end agreement that doesn't get properly notarized. 

Here, it must be notarized.

. - Have it notarized?

Title company sends a notary to you doc's are signed and notary and notarizes.