Just curious if a super low offer would be enough to get the owner to walk away from the lot. 

A walk through is paramount to make that determination. 

I walked in, saw the major mess, took in the horrific smell and thought "that's the smell of profit".

Income could drop to nothing quickly and the bank wants to be able to foreclose, resell the asset and walk away without loosing money. 

Getting started with a lender and agent is probably the logical next step, however, walking into a MFH property and seeing it, talking with tenants, digging through the details of a property makes it real. 

Glad you didn't walk away from the deal because of the back-due rent. 

Like I said, I don't know if a judge is going to let you walk out of a contract for such an insignificant issue.

If they do get turned on, I believe seller would be liable for any issues as you do not own the house.As for them signing contract saying they would but not choosing to, your likely only real world remedy is walk away and not buy house.  

He wants to cash out his ownership, pay his taxes, and walk away. 

However, this might require some programming on my end -- if you know how to program something like this, could you walk me through the steps (I assume it's Java?)