Well, if you don't know exactly what you want to do there's no harm in paying cash now and cashing out later.

It does no harm to use it for your own purpose.

NOTE I'm not a tax professional, please verify this info with someone who is, this is my best understanding of tax advantagesWorking with a Broker: Personally, once deals get into creative finance, I think agents and brokers do more harm than good unless they've bought using creative finance themselves.

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Since it is on a land contract, would I be doing any harm by not recording the transaction?

Yes, mold will die from desecration, but if it get moist it can became harmful.

It can be harmful or fatal.

But hey, no harm in sounding out the owner, before finalizing your end-game strategy... 

The price per unit could be lowered if cheaper finishes were used - which isn't a bad option either and I don't think it would really harm our rent asking price.I'm open to anything though as long as it's able to generate a profit.