I look forward to interacting with everyone here and can't wait to be the old-head passing on wisdom rather than the noob on the sideline :)-D

Not only will most sellers require that your financing/proof of funds be in order first before entertaining any sort of offer, but you also want to know how much home you can afford based on your income.

You have to learn when and how to accept and/or pass along certain types of risk.If you don't understand it, don't try it. 

Current owner is an older lady whose husband passed away.

Here's the backstory: A few years ago a friend passed away from pancreatic cancer.

I am extremely excited for the opportunities to invest in real estate and create a company/brand that I can pass on to my children. 

We passed on 2 potentially ok tenants in favor of getting one we felt more solid about and now have one who has the potential to be with us for several years. 

I finished by telling them that if I got one more complaint from either of them about this and it wasn't legitimate that I was going to blindly deny renewing both of their leases when it came to pass.

Almost everything I've come across here passes the 1% rule which is a big reason that this path makes sense for me but this is a gross overstatement of the property.  

I would probably pass (I understand you are already in contract, though) but I understand the excitement and drive to take that first step into real estate.