Bebe, Firstly condolences.

We had a similar issue and sold the property to the tenants by giving them 10% of the earned rent as a "deposit" - no money changed hands obviously, it was a paper transaction, and then they paid a mortgage instead of rent. The mortgage was slightly higher but they were buying a property which they could sell on. And with capital gains they built up equity. It worked really well.

After some time we took them to a bank and showed the history and although they struggled to qualify for a loan, the bank took into account the "equity" and the history and gave them a mortgage. They've never looked back. A bit of work involved for you but from personal experience - totally worth it to see them become home owners.