Frankly at this point not much. once you miss mortgage payments your credit is hammered.next worse is to actually have a foreclosure .. not sure if deed in lui piles on or not.the benefit of selling to an investor is they should get some money to do it.if your not offering any money and just saying its going to help your credit your not going to get very far with that strategy. and if they are under water to where they want to give them back.. why buy them at all .. you would want to try to do a short sale so you got some equity.

Should I just buy it under my name instead and not do owner financing or would there be a benefit since he's willing to do so?

What's the benefit to you to remove them from the lease?

If there is no gain recognization because of 121 exclusion, there is no benefit of paying yourself a commission because you do not use commission deduction against your gain but you get taxed on it (again).   

If you are going to do your own work, then you can essentially be the best customer HML can have. 

The 50(a)4 Change - There was a common phrase in Texas “once a cash out, always a cash out” which essentially meant that if you took a Texas Cash Out loan on your primary home it would ALWAYS be a cash out loan…even if you refinance later and didn’t receive cash out.

The benefit here is it subtlety fixes the tax problem you are experiencing.

(Increase rent at OKC house, save like a mad man, and seek seller financing or low money down properties)The benefit of the property is that it is an A- house/neighborhood surrounded by a rougher area that is experiencing gentrification.

I have benefitted from market appreciation on my BRRRR but even with the market appreciation on top of the forced appreciation I have yet to get all of my invested money out via the refi. 

But, usually, the repairs that can be deducted have higher tax benefit than from the deduction of the basis depreciation.