I need to spread the land purchase payments out over 3 years for tax reasons... ergo, why the installment contract and not a straight sale.Couple of scenarios I'd like to protect myself from: 1)  How do I protect against the buyer logging and selling the timber, which is worth quite a lot, which would reduce the value of the land? 

This is a perfect BRRRR strategy as I was able to get an extremely reduced price and there is a LARGE value add opportunity with adding an ADU and upgrading the original structure.

@Mike Perez New investors often think by buying low price properties it reduces risk but the fact is, it can be just the opposite.

So you will get poor initial cash flow and reduced appreciation.  

If your investment goal is Cash Flow, then TK appears to reduce your risk substantially.

We stopped collecting late fee and reduced the rent as we were all facing difficult times and agreed in writing once the states opens up we would return to regular rent payment as stipulated on the lease.I required some documents from him to confirm he was out of work and his document showed he's been out of work since November.We've not received any rent since March, i reached out to him and he complained he was holding back rent because there are things in the property that needs to be fixed threatening to call an inspection officer to the house.

The voucher from the government is nice since you know you will get paid and being qualified for section 8 reduces vacancies since there are a lot of people (in my area at least) that are on waiting lists for housing. 

That'll significantly reduce the number of cash buyers out there.

So the buyer saves 1.5% , the seller saves 1.5% of the negotiated price, and the selling agent is still getting their 3%.I have seen deals where the selling agent has made the deal work by reducing their own commission to get the seller and buyer to come together.

If you have a local partner, this will reduce their efforts as well.