Trying to make an off market deal work

[Account Closed]

The market where I am at is scarce in terms of deals. I've been working with a developer who has a duplex who is interested in selling but is by no means motivated to sell. I'm trying to house hack my way into a decent deal to start out. The facts are this:

• Duplex built in 1980 with detached (2) 1 car garages
• Rent for long-term tenant is currently $825 while rentometer says it averages out to $1015 for the area
• Rent for the recently remodeled (5 years ago) for the short-term tenant is $1000
• Neither tenant utilizes the garage
• Property taxes are $2,797.20 annually
• The owners opinion of value is $285-300k (assessed value at $251,587)

Factoring vacancy at 5% (current area is at .2%), 10% management, no capital improvements included as I'm rolling the management fee with that as I would self-manage for this first go around. The property doesn't really cash flow above $255,000 and at that price is maybe $30 total. 

Before I got the owner's opinion of value, I offered $235k and that was too low, he countered with maybe he'd consider $250-280k but didn't want to negotiate against himself. He gave me the opinion of value last week.

Is there room to negotiate on this deal to make it a positive win-win for both parties? 

$250k and a $40 cash flow seems slim after everything, but perhaps its a start. Any advice on trying to make this work is appreciated, or is it too far of a stretch.

[Bjorn Ahlblad]

@Account Closed welcome to BP. MF is crazy hot in most places and buyers seem to be OK paying high prices! Even if you were to raise the rents to 1000 per side IMO your 235k is a reasonable offer price. You might want to check comps and see what other properties are going for. All the best!