This house has been sporadically rented, usually by less than optimal tenants who have continually damaged the property.

That includes taxes, insurance, vacancies, maintenance, property management, and all those irregular but deadly expenses like evictions or major damage.

I can repair almost and damage, weld tub holes and fill them, repair the WORST fiberglass cracks, broken tiles, Its not an ad here and I am not trying to push my company, but I literally have 2.33 in my checking with a $3000 mortgage payment coming up, and I am getting desperate.

Yes, the tenants tend to be a little better and they tend to do less intentional damage than low income tenants.

Would it be practical to take time dated pictures of the houses' condition so that if a scumbag did damage your property and say it unlivable or poke holes in the ceiling, that you could simply show as evidence that everything was fine when they moved in?

How much damage was done overall to the home?

You might achieve a mutually agreeable solution and avoid possible damage to the property.

New roof, furnace, drain line, eviction, major tenant damage, or any number of large, unpredictable expenses.

Taxes are only 3-400 a year - so even having to pay a couple of years back taxes would be fine.We have physically gone to the property and walked it - it is only a couple of blocks from our house.

Sounds like the additional $3K is monetary damages in lieu of specific performance.