Once he threatened to get a lawyer involved I think she just wanted to make it obvious that we were making every effort to negotiate in good spirit, not 100% sure.

Might be less effort to replace.

.* The homeowner must cooperate with the real estate agent's efforts to sell the home and maintain the interior and exterior of the home.* The servicer and homeowner must meet a number of time frames.* The homeowner cannot have a close business or personal relationship with the real estate agent or buyer and cannot have an expectation of buying back or renting the home after the short sale or DIL closes.* The lender may require the homeowner to make full or partial payments on the mortgage, up to 31% of the homeowner's income, subject to the lender's written policies.* The lender can initiate or continue, but not complete a foreclosure sale while the homeowner is involved in the program.* The buyer in a short sale can't resell the home within 90days of the purchase.There you have it.

As a plumber in my past life, I can say the drain cleaners are not worth the effort and can damage the system.

It depends on what YOU think your time and effort is worth.

All this takes some time and effort of course. some investors I know in the lower end assets who can really control management will buyer the cheaper homes for cash and run with no debt there cash flow if the properties are run extremely well can be double or the leveraged ones.. so you could get there quicker by owning say 30 houses free and clear to get to the same number. .with less risk

I'd consider two pieces of info 1) is there a legally available option to require the neighbor to support the remediation efforts financially?

Then to satisfy a large judgment I assume the attorney will make every effort to get to the equity in that home owned by the LLC.  

I don't see how hearing from people who put in the effort and have some success will give you any data about success rates.

Finding a private lender can take time and effort -- you need to build trust, as the lender is investing as much in YOU as they are in the property.