Now that I am finally back in front of a desktop for a few hours I can attempt to get the information to you and the rest of the interested parties.I inquired with BP support on how to best send PDFs to you guys.

I don't recommend attempting to 'convince' a seller though.

In an attempt to prevent home owners from being taken advantage of Dodd Frank has created some barriers to lending to home owners.

As @Charles Maxwell said above- There are a lot of ways to make money in property.You might want to take a look at the Property Hub - (which is an attempt at a UK version of BP).

Otherwise, I may try to negotiate that the buyer work directly with the seller at my cost and attempt to get the buyer to give me the fee after closing on a gentleman's agreement.

         In addition to throwing all of the numbers into one of the property analysis spreadsheets here, I would get the historical occupancy of this, and similar units, in an attempt to answer your own question with regards to how often it will sit empty.  

I've attempted to set up searches with an investor and what I found was that the deals they wanted to make just didn't make sense from a retail market standpoint.

Youre right; definitely agree in attempting to lock numbers down so I dont get uncomfortable surprises.

At a minimum tell them to document/record everything and show up for any scheduled court dates.As for you, if you have contact info for the owner, attempt to contact them and see what the story is.

Your realtor will likely say things to appeal to pity and attempt to push you into making a deal.