My tenant friendly market (San Diego) has long term housing shortage that the tenant friendly laws mostly act as a balance of power. 

Purchased a note with a $3.2 million balance for $1.775 million.  

One option is to have the buyer use a loan to buy out your existing mortgage, and then you can carry a second lien on the property for the remaining balance.

Given that the house is paid off but has $27K in back taxes, you could offer to cover those taxes upfront in exchange for favorable terms on the remaining balance—like low (or no) down payment, and small monthly payments.You could also negotiate for a subject-to deal where you take over the property subject to the taxes, while still securing control of the property for your BRRRR strategy.

The land is often far from urban areas where housing is needed most, and environmental concerns must be balanced.

By your own admission you don’t have the balance sheet to buy real estate or borrow and haven’t taken any projects full cycle.

IF, they were willing to take the risk inherent in all “subject to” transaction done without lender approval, they would have also been able to “capture”, and added to their wealth, the difference between 9% and 3.25% on the underlying $375,000 loan balance, or about $21,500 per year.3.

If your purchase loan is $100,000 and you have $25,000 in rehab holdback, you are only paying interest on the amount of the principal balance each month. 

Typically 5+ units is ‘commercial’ or ‘small  balance’ multi family.

One bad tenant or major maintenance expense can cost you $5,000 - $10,000.Your only hope is to hold the property long enough that rents increase or the home appreciates, but even that could take 10 years to balance out the losses you incur in the meantime.