Hopefully you find the motivation here.

The OP mentioned Skype - that could be used to get some view of where the applicants are living, to see what sort of housekeeping they do.

She is correct, writing your own contract would be practicing law of sorts and is illegal.

I know real estate is highly regulated and I don't want to end up in trouble for practicing RE without a license, as happened here:  http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/1847...What sort of deal would be reasonable to propose to the real estate agent handling the sale, or to the owner?

It just completely motivated me to keep going!

Find their motivation for selling (they're very frustrated at this point), and then use that in your offer/negotiations as well.

The seller must be motivated, by something, and the buyer must have a desire to purchase.

This helps explain why most of the examples where I've seen this done are done with some sort of affordable component that includes low income housing tax credits or they're done in luxury areas where the rents justify the conversion costs.

Beyond excited and motivated to get started on our new journey and look forward to hearing from all of you and the wealth of knowledge that you have.  

ThanksI'm interested in abandoned houses because I figured the owners of those houses would be the most motivated to sell.have drove around wrote down some addresses of properties that looked vacant.