Once you have a better picture of value, running the numbers again "rent vs sell" would give you a better picture of what each choice may look like. 

I can look at photos of a newly rehabbed property hitting the market and know if corners were cut, and if the design choices will resonate with buyers. 

Refi or sell are the choices.  

William there are two ways you can help this seller using leases and optionsYou have to ask yourself whether not the property is going to appreciate overtimeIf you feel it's not going to appreciate, you need to get a price below the market today on your option with the seller,  if you going to do a sandwich lease option and stay in the middleIf you going to do a lease option assignment where you lease with an option from the seller and assign thevdeal to a buyer for fee, it  doesn't matter what the price is as long as the price is today's value or lessWhen I talk to sellers I don't talk about lease is an option, I first go through three columns landscape in a yellow legal pad,  and show them the basics of the choices: 1) sell with an agent and pay the customary costs include sellers concessions, agents commissions, closing costs, vacant house holding costs, etc.The first column it's important to go through an example of their house value; what ever  the fair market value is, do that exercise so that the seller truly understands he's going to net a lot less money selling agent than ur solution2) Second solution entails leasing out with the property manager, and you go through the cost to lease it out and also the cost to repair and sometimes property managers tack on other costs like padding maintenance costsThen I talk about the risks involved with leasing it to an unproven tenant, and then having to evict the tenant, lost rent for 6 to 8 weeks, clean the house, remarket and screen the new tenant, etc.Before I go through my solution, I say a "what if statement" that is something like this:Before I say the "what if statement" it's important you understand that I am using "negative phrasing" here, and ""appeal to a higher authority" which works a lot in terms deals like lease options, sub 2, and wrap purchasesHere goes.."

It seems to me that your choices are 1) Buy, change the rules, constantly watch to see if they break the rules and hoping that they pay you because in their mind you are now a "pet hater". 2) Buy, suck up the damages/troubles that these obviously irresponsible tenants will cause. 3) Pass.

If you have family there that makes the choice more simple, if it was me of course.Keep the liquid cash while renting for a short period to validate the market and business to yourself.

They are looking for another installer but to be honest, I don't think they really care about my time frame.This is not a large area with a lot of choices.

Then go to a lender with all the paperwork after finding the area of choice.

This house wouldn't have been my top choice as a rental, circumstances just made it one. 

I wanted to live there but now seeing my daughter and seeing the properties Its a hard choice to make sacrifice for a year and just suck it or up or get my family into a rental give myself a year or two to buy and then get a house after the initial investment