Our thinking is that we might buy the property as our primary residence and renovate the back apartment and finish out the commercial space for a modified version of house hacking.

The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act modified Sec 179 to allow expensing under S179 for qualified property used in a residential rental trade or business.

If I understand you correctly, you are advising a sort of modified brrrr strategy - modified since these houses are owned already but strategically pulling out a conservative amount of debt.The houses are mostly C class but some border on B-.

I just modified the post.

You have to read the original current tenants lease and all amendments past and current to see how the lease was modified over time with the history of the property and tenant.

What a perfect time to BRRRR but modified. 

The Seller is attempting to modify the real estate tax proration from 110% to 105%.

A lot of people forget that any contract can be modified if both parties initial.

@Alan Johnson I like the idea and something similar is used with timber and ag properties I think...sort of modified lease options where they don't actually control the property I do not think.

We close on the property and I send the tenant our lease modified to the terms that were already in place.