Open to alternative locations as well.    

These guys use hard-selling techniques and if they make enough phone calls, eventually they get someone to purchase a stock and make their commission.

Alternatives?  

Though the rent amount is in line with the area, your tenant pool is more limited, and there's a lot more space to maintain and get damaged, so your returns likely won't be so great.If you find that it's difficult to rent, I thought @Corby Goade's idea of converting it to a duplex is a good one if the building and zoning will permit it; alternately, you could knock out a wall to combine a couple of bedrooms to make it a 5/3 or even a 4/3 (or use some creative marketing - it's 5BR + office/den/whatever) to help make it sound more in line with norms.Hopefully you'll find a family that will want to rent it for years and years - it'll no doubt get torn up, but we all run that risk with our properties.  

If you wish to learn about some alternatives you likely haven't heard about before, please give me a call.Many thanks- Leslie

Are there some kind of esoteric techniques for using RadPad?

So looking for alternative time investment opportunities, REI was the obvious choice.

In some cases  I just acknowledge as soon as I am able and use what they call the broken record technique. 

Alternatively, I was considering doing number 1 & 2, and a Lease-Option so that he could buy back the house in 5 years, but since the mortgage would still be in his name with the Sub2 portion, he would likely be unable to get another mortgage to buy back the house.

@Steve A.I'm a firm believer in helping Sellars solve problems by using any technique that's legal and being licensedLease purchase with 3% down and a 12 month lease is I think a fair way to go for the seller and the buyer, create a lease purchase agreement and open up escrow instructions with a delayed sale