The former owner has contacted us and indicated that she would like to stay.  

Any way to minimize holding costs in this scenario?

If your deals take almost 6 months, I would be doing what your doing: put down as minimal as I can while still securing the asset.

If you are happy with minimal cash flow and amoritization in exchange for some land lording and property management experience then renting your current home makes sense.  

Hopefully you purchased, rehabbed, and occupied in a timely manner to minimize cost as well as securing a qualified tenant for this area.

I have been able to get most of the work  at no cost to very minimal cost, to costs  that I can bear at this time.

I wanted to start with lower risk type properties to minimize risk.

But I still try to minimize risks.

However, I do not allow people to break their contracts early but I indicated that I would work with them to find a new tenant if they were willing to let me show the house so I wouldn't lose any rents.

If I make an offer to purchase a property subject to the existing financing with the goal of minimizing my own funds into the transaction, how are the Realtor fees handled?