Im sure you're aware of you situation but I had to raise the question.Best of luck.

Perhaps he is planning on staying as a tenant after he sells.

If you do not do it this way then you risk running your unit vacant because college students tend to start looking for a place to stay around Feb-May for the following year, actually more like Mar-May, but you want the Ad up in Feb.

So I recently posted about trouble I was having when two of the room mates on the lease demanded to be let off, the other two wanting to stay and two more wanting to be added.

It would be a great place fro someone staying in SoCal or if someone wants to rent it out.

Lastly, appreciation may be tough to come by so need to find value-adds in a market already saturated with rent options.I typically stay North of 190 but there are definitely other pockets that make sense (it's also all relevant to your risk tolerance so don't want to make a firm statement here)  Dawn Anastasi is a Milwaukee investor who was on a BP Podcast and has written a solid short eBook on Milwaukee.  

I believe judgement from child services survive the tax deed sale and it stays on, even when I buy it.

Glad to hear you're staying above the fray and have a more wholesome perspective than some you've come across. 

This is not a bad thing in most cases, but something to be aware of going into the deal as you need to structure your planning around this.- Josh

Generally I would recommend to stay away from such transaction, there are many investment opportunities available for your IRA to invest on it's own, that is what you should consider.