Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation floating around about lease options, and even land contracts, which sounds like a good alternative solution, but it may depend on the state.

This opened up a can of worms and confusion with multiple answers and solutions.

Simply forbidding it is not a solution IMO.

@Chris Purcell, I see this as a good solution to a problem.

I am a consultant and former solution architect in the cloud computing industry and my goal is to be able to retire early on multiple rental properties and to finance others who are in the business as my capital accrues.  

Your approach to look beyond the immediate local footprint is a viable solution and it's still within the state.

This avoids let me think it over.Three negotiate and discover how motivated they are to fix the problem, I do this by asking how they feel about many different solutions, will sing it with another agent another company, how we feel about property managers, how they feel about for sale by owner, etc.Four if there's a lot of equity, talk about some cash now and some cash later, using notes, leases, etc.Lastly use a "what if" statement in step fiveA "what if" statement might sound something like this:"Mr. and Mrs. seller, we've been through a lot today, I do want to ask you one or two more questions, and basically it's the kind a solution I can provide for you, you may not like the solution and if you don't then I'll pack up and go, but I think after talking to you it's the best solution....what if I could arrange a payment coming to you over a period of time, I don't know 24 or 36 months, then whenever the existing balance is, say it's $110,000 (i'm inserting this number) and that's a good guess, but you will receive a payment over 24 to 36 payments to pay your principal interest taxes and insurance, and then whatever your balance on your mortgage would be paid off in full, at the end of the 24 to 36 months, and I don't even know if I could get that done for you, because  I need to talk it over with my business partner, he does all the contracts( this is called appeal to a higher authority)...if I can get this done for you, it would take about 45 days to do, so someone would move into this beautiful house, make a payment for 24 to 36 months and then pay off your mortgage in full, Is that something to even talk about or should we just scrap that idea?

Find sellers who need solutions and solve their problems in a way that benefits both of you.  

I have a couple thoughts, and what solution is best will ultimately come down to what works best for each of you.Option 1 would be that the two of you being equity partners in an LLC, split at whatever percentage you agree on.  

Best of luck(and so as to not just point out problems without a solution, also see if a 2-4 unit, more modern--like built maybe from last 40 years or ideally earlier--is on the market or the numbers work if you like the area)...