The alternative would be to live there for 2 years so you could pay zero tax all these plans should be based on if you play to make $25k (taxes wont matter much) or $250k (2 years looking pretty good.)ps.

The administration is much more complex than just managing publicly traded assets so they leave alternative assets to specialty providers. 

Alternatively, we could save up cash and with our current available Heloc funds make the next purchase then pay down the Heloc over time, use the Heloc to buy...rinse and repeat.

Alternatively you could find a private money lender.

Alternately, there are private money programs completely tailored to the needs of real estate investors.

However, after speaking to more people about this idea, I think I am open to possible alternative routes.

I want to see what are alternatives to the big box stores in the area.

They had already tried many alternatives.

@Andrew DeWeerd you should connect with @Brandon Abbott he knows the non bank lending space well if you need alternative financing 

Looked for their alternate addresses/family members and All over white pages and people finders and still cannot get into contact with the owner.