I offered to watch over the property while she is away in Aussie and make sure the tenant is all good, contingent on bringing a tenant in.So, I have a tenant and they are excited to move in soon.

@Dan HeuscheleYou definitely bring up some valid points about the area. 

If you are looking for larger funding to do complete projects, it would be interesting to see how this works as you may be able to bring them high ROIs, but not necessarily a complete picture ($ amount) of what a full project could look like.

And of course, base and greedy as it is, I also keep my mouth hole shut because it wouldn't be particularly profitable to bring all of this up with my tenants.So I would try to bring this up non-judgmentally with your tenant in a phone call or face-to-face before you send that letter.

Those are just some questions I'm usually interested in when talking to someone more experienced than me.As for tips on approaching people, if there are any kinds of drinks or refreshments, just go right up to the table/bar and get a drink or food and kind of stand there - the next person that comes by ask, "So what brings you here tonight?"

Me , I would bring my tractor with a loader , wrap a chain around the pole and pull them out faster than you could cut them .DO NOT let them cut them at ground level , the cut makes very sharp edges , someone in bare feet would get cut bad . 

What % increase would bring the tenant to market?

Bring it in :-)I've been consistently analyzing deals in LA on a daily basis and had to keep writing "Damn" on the bottom of  my pages of paper after analyzing that the property will not cash flow.

I just have to be a contrarian here @Caleb Heimsoth  as Caleb states I cannot think of anything risker than remote rehab for beginners.. keep in mind the author is a very experienced real estate professional and what works for him simply is not germane for beginners I know they want to sell books on this site.. but I fear there is going to be some really sad people that try to do this and simply don't know what they don't know.. all to just save 5 to 10k  extra that a flipper that does all the work and takes all the risk makes bringing you a finished product.. you can lose 10 to 20k in a heart beat doing this if not more.. 

You would have to get a payoff for it and either include it in the short sale negotiations, have the seller bring money to the table to pay it off, or the buyer would pay it.