I've had people get mail for 3 years and then their situation changes and by golly, the timing was perfect for my letter and they never recalled any of the other mail over the past years.

Best of luck, this sounds like an unfortunate situation for all parties.

I would suggest interviewing 3-5 candidates, describing your situation and asking how they would best serve your needs. 

Is this still considered a wholesale deal and could that situation be handle to make it a wholesale, or, would this be disqualified as a wholesale and qualify as, say, a lease option?

For example, the tenant didn't replace a single light bulb or the tenant took the batteries out of the smoke alarm...it seemed it kept going off when they were smoking apparently.

GenerousBut the money upfront, that seemed odd and my scam alarms starting going off.

Sounds like my exact situation.

Does anyone have any advice about anything I can do in this situation?

I have a ton of questions, but first and foremost the situation Is that my wife and I will be managing this 4plex ourselves. we also have more units we wIll be purchasing and managing before the end of the year.

It really depends on the owner's situation like looking for cash flow versus looking to cash out.