Asking About The Existing Financing: • Do you own the house free and clear?

A lot of desperate people looking for ridiculously cheap rent or "work for rent for situations" (as if that last one even exists).But, amongst the fodder, you will also find legitimate potential tenants who just prefer for landlords to find them. 

Finance is not real estate that most take lightly, while underwriting guidelines exist now for seller financing there is also a side that RMLOs probably aren't aware of, that is looking into the future as to the probability of a borrower performing  as  expected, obtaining other financing, secondary market underwriting is easy, predicting the future takes more skill and experience.Good luck :) 

If there is an existing mortgage on the property, is it possible to strike a deal with the bank/lender that owns the mortgage note without actually foreclosing the property? 

I've put in an offer on a potential first property in NE Minneapolis that looks to me like it will need significant retaining wall and driveway work at some point in the near future.

In growing markets, existing properties must compete with new construction of tax credit units.

@Maria D.You can move your existing IRA to a self-directed IRA.  

I still, however, have retained all of my RE investing expertise.

The trouble with that is the "What if" always exists.

So new contributions to that Roth would need to be invested elsewhere.You could consider a Roth conversion on the existing traditional IRA.