She could do a quit claim to her husband, then he could execute the special warranty deed.The old contract for deed was a go-to strategy back in the day, usually done improperly and full of flaws they rarely were pulled off as agreed, now besides the determination of sale issues with the IRS, these now get into other title matters, wrongful foreclosures, lost deeds, pre-arranged unlawful deed transfers and/or predatory lending/dealing issues.

Unless there was a special arrangement, the property was difficult to sell, or something out of the ordinary took place, the agreement is between the bird dog and buyer.       

If it does then something like that could potentially be arranged. 

However, the equity arrangement is much more typical and makes sense.

You can certainly get help from a realtor or broker and make an arrangement with them.  

With such a short notice it is a big hassle to arrange the painter and short notice to the tenants.

My local REI group, CARPOA, has arranged for a 1 day seminar OCT 8.

The side by side family arrangement seemed ideal and truthfully from looking at the place it seemed like this situation would probably continue on indefinitely!

Is this a standard arrangement for land investment deals?

As soon as you can comfortably do it or have it arranged, change the exterior door locks to provide you some safety.