If you've had a similar experience or are a lawyer I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

DISCLOSURE: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.I wouldn't think this would be considered discrimination since it is not targeting the protected classes outlined in the Fair Housing Act.

• What kind of lawyer do you contact to draw up the paperwork?

@Denise Evans the tax auction was in July on the 5th I don't even have the tax certificate yet and she has contacted a lawyer and is very upset that I have been cutting the grass and that one day when I showed up it look like somebody tried to take apart the lock because the front door and back door were both wide open so I tried to lock them back and the front door wouldn't lock so I replaced just the deadbolt on the front door the lock that was messed up

I have a real state lawyer who created the rental lease for me, and gave every copy of all the legal documents I needed to have with my lease.

do your search talk to a real estate lawyer.

An article written by a lawyer identifies that this is often a situation where the ultimate goal for the lender is to defraud and the victim's recourse of action is to seek a third-party mediator (real estate lawyer). 

My thought is that we would have a lawyer draw up a mortgage in which I give him a 10% down payment, hopefully with a 15 year term/amortization. 

Lawyers representing the people she owed money to contacted us and asked if we were still interested in buying it through the bankruptcy court process.

Yes,none of those damages are "wear and tear",they are reckless behavior and you deserve compensation.Get estimates on repairing the damage and use the entire deposit to pay for it.If you have their forwarding address,send them a bill for whatever the deposit didn't cover.Get lots off close up pictures of the damages for the lawyers and or small claims judge as well as line by line written damage estimates on everything.Don't take this garbage lying down,fight back!!!