Daniel Ebling Employees = full control, more government regulations, reporting.

I would assume once the land is under Federal government control any past mortgages/liens are pretty much non-existent.

What does the lease say regarding pest control? 

I could pay them a salary or hourly wage and I am thinking that would be less expensive and give me more control? 

Rent control is the biggest PITA, for sure. 

If you want to take control of the property without title transferring, to avoid the seller having to pay off the mortgage, you could do something like a lease option, where you make monthly payments to the owner in title (perhaps the same as the loan terms you discussed) and you are given the right to purchase the property any time in the future at a set price ($143,000).

I am selling now to take advantage of not paying cap gains (and I dislike knowing that assessments are coming that I don't have control over). 

I know with conventional financing at closing I'd take "control" of that property and be able to refinance after X amount of months.

They are of course in the business to close deals and we must assume that, that is precisely what they want to do. 

I'm all about that hustle until I'm in a position financially to know I can commit to paying someone good money to do a fantastic job doing it the way I want (subtext: I'm a super frugal control freak!)