Both parties must realize two things: Business is business, and family is family.

@Thomas Pollard Ok, so I checked out the property (popped in french lol then I realized its in Canada), and thanks for clarifying some of the questions asked. 

We think the situation here is the landlord decided to sell the house after the lease was signed maybe realizing they had more equity then they thought and want to cash out on the place. 

Another example was a small dent in a wall that didn't need to be filled in that I puttied anyway... then realized that was one of the few walls in the house that I wasn't going to repaint and I didn't have the original paint color.

You can't scale quickly tying up 30-50k or more in every rental indefinitely and once your realize you don't have to you don't want to do it even if you can.The first one is a bit scary, I get it.  

I realize this may sound like a bad deal, but I purchased the property for $55k (conventional loan, 20% down) and it needs about $20k of improvements to get 2 of the 3 doors ready for rent.  

The funny thing is that it took another year after I read it before I realized I wanted to invest in real estate.

(I am even more ignorant than I thought, the more I learn the more I realize how little I know about investing in real estate).

However, in reality, there is a strong possibility that the county may realize that the property is no longer owner-occupied, and then the exemptions and ultimate tax status of the property could be changed.... 

I do realize you have the added challenge of caring for your disabled Mother.One avenue I would utilize to accomplish both your real estate goals and finding employment is attending as many networking events as time and money (they are not all free) allow.