Since it appears this is your first purchase of this type of asset I want to encourage you to dig deep into the creditworthiness of the tenant and their commitment to this property.

Short Payoff was offered by the lender as an alternative to previously approved Short Sales, so as to avoid committing any fraud.

Once pending, if access to their portal is obtained, clicking :Assistance Program-> Check on Progress-> New page with dropdown menu to once again select the account number from the drop down, and the words Short Payappear in blue as a hyperlink.It actually is one of the Assistance Programs they offer(have been forced to offer)Committing Short Sale Fraud , for me at least, is absolutely out of the question.

I am working towards a presentation to an investor that I have on board to commit capital to some small student housing opportunities in a smaller market.

But the combination of the time and money commitment, will force the folks to stay till the end. 

Send out your renewal 120 days before the end of the lease, if you tenant doesn't commit to the renewal 90 days before the end of it, get it listed for rent. 

Require earnest money...just so the buyer is committed...$5k maybe...How is the buyer planning on closing the deal?

Landlords Are committed for life.A 1 year lease provides you the ability to fill the vacancy at their expense.

Justin, welcome to BP and congrats on making the mental leap to commit.

So, if you go out and network and collect commitments before finding a deal, and you have total commitments for $1,000,000, you should assume that you only have $250,000 to work with.You should also remember that commercial property (i.e., anything with 5 units or more) has a different kind of debt than residential property.