@Patrick Shaw if your mental health is at stake find another place (without snakes) and face the music if there is any to be faced.

It doesn't take much damage to a human to exceed $1 million and the cost for $2 million is not much more. 

If you understand human psychology, it is normal response to perceived threat.

The VA loan is restrictive on health and safety codes.

I'm not sure how others usually go about this, but from a landlords point of view, it seems like if this person age 24 or younger, but older than 18, is a full time student, still able to be claimed on taxes as a dependent (often still under parent's health insurance and car insurance as well) it seems maybe not so necessary to include them on the lease as well. 

I know conventional loans are less strict about condition than an FHA/VA, but more wondering where the tipping point is from a lending perspective to require a reno-loan vs. conventional.There are a few health/safety issues. 

Check the studies by Harvard (and others) at how terrible humans are at timing the market... at some point, you gotta get wet if you wanna go swimming! 

I get that we as landlords want to delegate as much accountability and cost of the property to the tenant as possible, but I doubt they will care one way or another about the health of your properties systems.

The condition of the house makes it unlikely for a conventional loan to close without addressing a few health/safety issues before closing, but the Sellers want an "as-is" sale.  

It sounds like you have good tenants and you are all acting like normal humans to find a solution that works for both parties. a rare post on these forums lol