I’m fairly certain there are no comps for the appraisal so I don’t think any bank will finance it unless the appraiser has some creative way of making this happen.  

He's telling you to wait a week because you're going to go look at cars in person, or put your contact info on some website, to "think about it" a week earlier than whatever he tells you (this is 100% true, and as a lender I will not believe you if you tell me otherwise... sorry :P ), and the second you walk onto that car lot a bunch of car salesmen are going to descend upon you, deploying various lines of BS as a pretext to run your credit ("it's a soft pull" or "we just need your SSN to verify you aren't a terrorist, we aren't going to run your credit") and close you on a car that very day, and there is greater than a 0% chance you will believe what they tell you and screw everything up.The rule is that whatever you tell homebuyers not to do, some non-trivial percentage of them are going to push it one notch farther than you tell them.

Then you can pursue in small claims court or put a deficiency on their credit report 

I'm fairly confident that with modern upgrades the house will support that valuation and command high rents.

I say this to say I am fairly smart with numbers. 

Currently, it's worth about $360k (Zestimate, which seems fair).  

I also spent a fair amount of time at Fairview hospital a few years back-- the Kamms Corner/West Park area looks like it would be a super rental area too-- if I lived in the Cleveland market I'd be willing/looking to buy there.

Also, is it the first person who submits an application and passes the background/credit check who I move forward with as the tenant to fill the unit?

Your final considerations are Credit Cards or a HELOC but do their benefits carefully and pay them off in time. 

Play it safe since the deduction ends up being fairly minimal.Lastly, talk to a professional.