I am looking forward to learning as much as possible from the BP Forum.

In 18-months the damage will be somewhat limited and {hopefully} will not have had the opportunity to permeate the subfloor and structure {though that is a possibility} - you may just get away with a lots of cleaning and replacing finish flooring (like carpets).The longer they stay, the more expensive the repairs will be at move out.

Which possibly then even gave me the idea seeing if they would be willing to owner finance.

I've been trying to absorb as much information as possible.

Or possible add a letter they can mail back to you, make it easy for them to respond. 

I'm trying to get into real estate with as low risk as possible, and to me one thing that will help with that is low interest rate and 30 years of payments, which gives me the smallest monthly loan payment.  

Then the payments go back to the person who sold you the partial.To use your example, it is certainly possible to buy the last 5 years of payments on a 30 year note.  

Hey BP,My friend and I purchased a townhouse from our self-directed IRA's. The property is in Virginia. We applied for a mortgage through NASB. When it came time to actually buy the property we ran into a road block. ...

I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss local stats and possiblities.

Possibly even forclosures or auction properties that I can turn into rentals.