I worked for a small firm in Constriction Engineering Products, Johnson Controls, that sold air and water control equipment to large apartment and commercial building contractors.

AC did not purchase that property with the intent of holding for productive use. 

We also have sickness/loss-of-life which will impact every market slightly -- production, real estate, etc.

This is a business, the tenant bought the product, they used the product, they need to pay for the product.

Your roommates won't want to live through a reno.Risk adjust your offers.Look into non-FHA, low-down payment mortgage products.

Then I joined a broker where I have complete time and productivity flexibility.

https://alertlabs.com/products...I recently purchased this smart meter which is connected via cell signal and gives real time down to the minute usage.

There are products out there where you can put 25% down and cover 25% of the rehab budget on the back-end with the lender funding the rest.

There are steps that they could take making it more difficult to remove them and your idea of involving the person who signed the lease is a clearly valid step to take for the reasons you gave. 

A verbal lease is valid in Texas@Randy S.