We both still work full time jobs, Andie is a change management consultant for a small consulting firm in Cincinnati and I work as a Contracting Officer for the Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton.

BiggerPockets Family,I am active duty Air Force currently in Denver, CO but am about to move between December and May 2019.

The tenants are now gone and we pulled up all the carpet, had the vents cleaned, used an ozone generator and we still have an odor coming from the cold air vents. 

I plan to self manage, but ran the numbers as I were hiring out the management.

I have tried to hire four people in the last two months and they have all been no shows.

So, if the parties negotiate with each other, it is always an element of negotiations to say to the other party something along the lines of, "You might be right in what you are claiming that you owe me only $XX, but you will have to hire a lawyer to find out, so save the legal fees and pay me $XX plus $YY, and it will still be cheaper than paying the lawyers." 

If both parties agree on terms (price, etc), you could always hire a RE attorney to go over with and explain the contract to the seller before he or she signs for probably a 1/2-1 hour consultation.

In 1988 I quit my job, started a consulting company, hired people, etc., etc. 

In this case I would be hiring people to do the work on the house instead of myself as it can get done quicker and I won’t get burnt on working on it every day after work.

Other option is to hire a lawyer to lobby for you, but that will be an expense, and the path of least resistance is to gain favor with the neighbor and council person.