You could also do a subject to; often you may not need to put any money down to control the deal.There are a lot of great post here on BP and highly recommend you understand all of these options further.

We had spoke with the controller, and was given a go, to go pump water out of a basement.

We rent the house out are self allowing us control and keeping cost downs If you do decide to keep the house I personally am a strong advocate to lock in a low interest rate. 

I totally agree " effort is better spent re-filling "Do not mention to tenants  plans until property back in your control.( keep your options open )Just my two cents

Remember you don't have to own a property to control it.

You can use this report to share your fico's and other financial information with the next bank or mortgage company you check out to get a more precise idea of rate and terms for different loan products, until you're ready to proceed.

Remember you don't have to own a property to control it.

(Copy and paste is formatting the text that the text box can't control at the moment) Maybe the owner is only trying to get it approved.

Check to make sure theres enough  car parking to support both store fronts, plus the tenants of the apartments (city can limit the types of businesses depending on parking, for instance if theres not a lot of parking they can not permit restaurants).Also find out if the building is in a DDA controlled area.

Remember you don't have to own a property to control it.