You did purchase the property in one tax year and are selling it in another tax year which satisfies one of the court rulings. 

The borrower gets the benefit of having access to capital fast and the lender gets the benefit of charging a higher interest rate and not having to pay taxes on the profit.

Investors often obsess over how to defer tax obligations and ultimately make poor investments due to being hyper focused on taxes.

The biggest differences between residential and commercial:  Scalability, financing are very different, property taxes may be different, Insurance is definitely different. 

A mortgage lender can help determine if refinancing or tapping into equity might allow you to acquire additional properties.Consider a 1031 Exchange: If you're open to selling a current property, a 1031 exchange can defer capital gains taxes while enabling you to upgrade to a larger or more profitable asset.

I use a spreadsheet I developed to determine my entry costs, carrying costs, cash flow, tax write offs, appreciation and exit costs.

Secondly, the homeowner would need to cooperate as she would need to submit a bunch of paperwork including income statements, tax returns, etc. for the Short Sale application to show that she is insolvent.  

Be mindful of short-term capital gains tax, as profits from flips held for less than a year are taxed as ordinary income, and frequent flipping may result in self-employment taxes.While profits from flips do not qualify for 1031 exchanges (since flips are considered inventory, not investment properties), you can minimize your tax burden by deducting allowable expenses like renovation costs, loan interest, and holding expenses.If you're considering diversifying into rentals, explore opportunities to benefit from long-term tax advantages such as depreciation and lower long-term capital gains rates.

Not to mention the tax benefits it allows. 

I’d fix it up and list it to sell after I’d been there two years to take the gain tax free.