A successful short-sale typically benefits the borrower (homeowner) in the following ways: it can give them more time in the house (and payment-free); it is better than a foreclosure from a credit report perspective and wold allow him to obtain a new purchase loan for a new home in the future more quickly as compared to having it go through foreclosure.I would encourage you both to reach out to a local realtor with short-sale experience and have them facilitate the transaction, it would not cost you or the owner the commission as it would be paid out of the bank's proceeds.No, in a short-sale I would definitely not offer any payments to him directly that are not known and approved by the bank, you can get yourself in hot water and probably legal trouble by doing that on a short sale.

I had a meeting with the trouble tenant with a facilitator going through parking limitation and he said he was ok with it.

The attorney there can draw up a simple purchase contract and facilitate the purchase and closing.

I hoped someone would have a recommendation for a good 1031 facilitator to use in the Atlanta area. 

As plan facilitators, we have a responsibility to take a generally conservative approach and point clients down a safe path. 

Custodians will not setup an LLC for you, it must be done by the "third party", a company also referred to as "facilitator".

Their portal is pretty well designed and they facilitate the purchase/sale process well.

My understanding is that WS often find off-market properties that would not make it to the stream of commerce by other means, or at least facilitate them getting there faster (e.g., WS can liquidate a house for an estate a lot faster than by grinding through the probate process).

I'm not a 1031 exchange facilitator, but I know for a fact that you can 1031 a pair of SFRs (Bay Area price points) into a shopping mall (midwest price point), so I can't imagine this wouldn't be possible. 

My recommendation is that you actively communicate with the tenants to facilitate the move-out.