A year from now you and I will be having this same conversation. 

But it is in a relatively poor location so I figured that may be having an impact on the price.

Are you all doing anything for well behaving tenants with expiring leases or are you looking to turn over tasks and new applicants?

I’ve been lucky some may say since I brought my triplex with good tenants who’ve been there for years before I even thought of buying the property so they were able to tell me about all the minor issues with the house and they’ve been good behaving, consistently on-time, full-rent paying tenants since I’ve owned the house.

I recommend petscreening.com which is free to Landlords but you could also require they have at least one Landlord reference that can attest to their pet behaving and leaving the rental in good condition.

I am trying to track down the owner of a property and seem to be having some difficulty.

My only concern would be having enough for closing cost but if I need to wait and build more cash, then I am willing to do that. 

As a Loudoun County Realtor, I echo everything @Heather Skowronsky says: short sale doesn't seem applicable here, and your parent should be able to sell it to you for whatever they like.Your issue with this potential purchase may be having enough cash to close. $20k for a $450k purchase gives you <5% down, and doesn't consider closing costs. 

Suggestions:1) get good rental property insurance that covers loss of rents for covered reasons: fires, etc; 2) be a good landlord and treat your tenants as customers you will reduce liabilities with an ounce of prevention; 3) Get umbrella insurance which also helps to covers your assets in a suit; 4) IF you get an LLC you must run it as a separate business or it will not provide you any protection (I'm not an attorney, but that's my understanding); meaning if you combine your business funds with your personal funds, they will be able to demonstrate it behaves as a straw company and really the courts should ignore it as a separate legal entity (my understanding of the risks).  5) LLCs can make lending/borrowing more difficult, until you want to borrow non-conforming loan funds (non-Freddie/Fannie) or you hit your 10-15 property limits with Freddie/Fannie, at which time you'll need to go to commercial lenders who will WANT the property/loan to be in an LLC.  6) As you grow your portfolio keep in mind conventional lenders will look at your DTI (debt to income) ratios. 

Now if this is a 5+ unit property we may be having a completely different conversation.