I would address the water issue for sure with the seller making the repairs that way it is rolled into your financed sum.Also if the seller is not willing to do that then a concession would be to have them extend the lease with the tenant.You have two problems... at the very least you need to get one of them taken care of because they are big ifs.

We have also just gone through a family emergency that required me to fly out of state to be with family for an extended time, and that required my husband to take time off work and therefore he can't take anymore time off to care for the kids while I go to court.

If its cash you need then the only thing of value you would bring to a potential cash partner is the ability to buy assets at a great price or you can prove your one heck of a operator.And lastly you can go out and try to talk sellers into selling to you with no money down and they extend credit to you... in some markets this can happen those are generally low value areas or war zone ghetto type places were the seller just wants out.. hard to find that in good areas ..

At year 7 if I have not missed any payments, I have the option to pay in full or extend the terms of the loan.  

I would get a deal ready for a private investor to review with you (I mean your family or extended family), tell them you are willing to put in all of your investment money into the deal and show them realistic expectations for them to also make money by funding the rest of your deal.  

They have been managing my dad's portfolio of 25+ single family and duplex units for 8-10 years, as well as a few units owned by extended family out of state.

I forgot 53208 extended into those neighborhoods. 

Depending on how many mailing pieces you want to send out at a time, you may want to consider extending out your equity to generate more leads.

Also, do you ever extend the lease terms beyond one month for good tenants? 

He got paid because I was out of town for an extended time and I got a friend to inspect it.