Trying to locate the ideal firm that would facilitate a "homevestors" like marketing campaign...  

In an ideal world, I’d like to have a list of reliable cash buyers always on standby.

An ideal investment that you can make for your future.

They are first-time business people so they're overthinking the whole LLC thing, but I deal with this all the time.

You've made it 50 years + on this earth without pulling a Wile E.

Although the terms of the unexpected new lease are not ideal, that was not the deal breaker.

The cashflow was good, but starting out with negative equity wasn’t ideal.

It will need Cap-Ex sooner or later, so BRRRR would be the ideal approach here; I'm approved for a conventional loan, but could start applying in earnest for a bank loan, or possibly pursue an option I have to partner up to make a cash offer (this deal is right around that 100k mark where my lender would only reluctantly do such a small conventional loan...another reason BRRRR is appealing).

Being out of state bring a whole another level of complexity, my advice would be to find a house in a B area in Detroit or in the suburbs, ideally with only cosmetics repairs needed (you don't want to open the walls on a house built in the 30's), find a good property manager, put a good debt in place and repeat the process. 

Seems like an ideal island car.