The total value of the contract would end up being $52,419 over a period of 8 years.

Any external influences such as short sales, death, divorce, etc that affect a sale price means that property should not be used as a comp.

You will probably have to wait for a right of recession before receiving the cash, but that is only a 3 <business> day period.

These properties have new liens up for sale but I'm hesitant to buy any because I'm not sure why the certificate holders haven't started the foreclosure process even though they are years past the required redemption period (2 years in Florida).

This is one of the typical frauds...most claim it as an "inspection" period.

As far as what you can do IF it is in pre-foreclosure, you can 1. do a short sale2. bring the loan current and have the borrower move 

Hey BP Community,Long story short... before BP I received some "bad" counsel from a CPA to put our properties in an S-Corp instead of an LLC (properties are in Sacramento California if that matters).Fast forward 5 years and some of the properties have almost doubled in value.  

Lots of hard work over a long period of time.  

But is there any other solution to update them short of pulling them off the wall and rocking everything?

Do you ask them if they'd be interested from the beginning or after they have rented from you for a period or time?