Bigger Pockets is the one stop shop for real estate investing.

or could i offer them a return and tell them ill only borrow their money for 6 months

One of those potential buyers may have stopped negotiations with the seller hoping that no else, in this case you made an offer, once you made the offer, likely they went back to the prior offer attempting to gin it up using your offer as bait, so to speak. 

If you've done a few deals, have good credit worthiness, and a good relationship with lenders you know you'll be able to get financed.Last but not least you mentioned that you want to stop passing on deals just because the numbers don't work and "just want to get a deal done." 

I do not want to cause grief on the person that lives there by stopping in and questioning but thought about sending a letter to see if they would allow the 31% or 62% to be sold and allow a survey and appraisal to be done.How would I go about purchasing the 31% owned by the bank and getting a clear title?

Traveling for work non-stop, no time to do anything but work.

Small time really , so 5 to 10k is a big deal to me when I can no longer borrow money. 

often one element stops working causing the hot water to not last long enough, its a easy fix as long as the element is not seized in the tank.

Borrow from friends and family.

This would stop any potential partition action from partners (minority or otherwise).I say give them their start by paying a bird dog fee. $5K means it better be a damn good deal. $2K is more like it.