If I don't put any money into repairs (I've never seen the inside so I have no idea what condition it's in - this is just an exercise), I'm seeing around 15% cash on cash return.When estimating the rents, I went under what the seller had reported.

@Akeen Felder In addition to @Russell Brazil's point regarding net listings, there's also the issue about "fraud in the inducement", meaning that you entered into a contract to purchase a property when you had neither the intent nor the ability to do so.Further, your state licensing laws may have something to say about whether you owe a fiduciary duty to the seller.  

Let’s go through a few evolutions of this exercise. 

@Michael Hudelson - money can’t be your why, so let’s do this exercise. 

A staged lease-reading followed by a Q and A is much more the kind of training and performance exercise you need in the landlord-tenant relationship.Of course, once you get up past a certain number of tenants, holding these kinds of formal lease-signings is going to get very hard to handle and/or you're going to get sick and tired of showing up.

(Effective September 30, 2018.)(1) A landlord may not, based on the source of income of an otherwise eligible prospective tenant or current tenant:(a) Refuse to lease or rent any real property to a prospective tenant or current tenant, unless the: (i) Prospective tenant's or current tenant's source of income is conditioned on the real property passing inspection; (ii) written estimate of the cost of improvements necessary to pass inspection is more than one thousand five hundred dollars; and (iii) landlord has not received moneys from the landlord mitigation program account to make the improvements;(b) Expel a prospective tenant or current tenant from any real property;(c) Make any distinction, discrimination, or restriction against a prospective tenant or current tenant in the price, terms, conditions, fees, or privileges relating to the rental, lease, or occupancy of real property or in the furnishing of any facilities or services in connection with the rental, lease, or occupancy of real property;(d) Attempt to discourage the rental or lease of any real property to a prospective tenant or current tenant;(e) Assist, induce, incite, or coerce another person to commit an act or engage in a practice that violates this section;(f) Coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any person in the exercise or enjoyment of, or on account of the person having exercised or enjoyed or having aided or encouraged any other person in the exercise or enjoyment of, any right granted or protected under this section;(g) Represent to a person that a dwelling unit is not available for inspection or rental when the dwelling unit in fact is available for inspection or rental; or(h) Otherwise make unavailable or deny a dwelling unit to a prospective tenant or current tenant that, but for his or her source of income, would be eligible to rent real property.(2) A landlord may not publish, circulate, issue, or display, or cause to be published, circulated, issued, or displayed, any communication, notice, advertisement, or sign of any kind relating to the rental or lease of real property that indicates a preference, limitation, or requirement based on any source of income.(3) If a landlord requires that a prospective tenant or current tenant have a certain threshold level of income, any source of income in the form of a rent voucher or subsidy must be subtracted from the total of the monthly rent prior to calculating if the income criteria have been met.(4) A person in violation of this section shall be held liable in a civil action up to four and one-half times the monthly rent of the real property at issue, as well as court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees.(5) As used in this section, "source of income" includes benefits or subsidy programs including housing assistance, public assistance, emergency rental assistance, veterans benefits, social security, supplemental security income or other retirement programs, and other programs administered by any federal, state, local, or nonprofit entity.

Context:As a new, bright-eyed, soon-to-be real estate investor in multi-family properties I want to be aggressive in building up a portfolio to where the rental income would allow me to step away from my full-time W2 ...

How can I do this and protect myself from any new liens being placed on the property before I complete the rehab and exercise my option?

It was a good exercise as we’re nearing retirement and wanted to know what that would look like.

Sounds like if I take your route, I pay theme rent and then exercise my option to purchase on pre agreed to price after property is passed to beneficiaries so that they will inherit and then sell on a stepped up basis?!