I am looking at buying a place to rent out that has a strange smell. 

If there are thousands in equity, just bring the note current and buy it subject to the mortgage.something smells fishy.

If the house you're trying to buy is smaller or further away from work or units, an underwriter will smell that it's not a primary residence.What some folks do is refinance the portfolio into a commercial loan using an LLC so the other mortgages go away and this one mortgage is tied to those other properties. 

I agree it seems like an uphill battle to get someone to agree to it, but I'm hopeful that once the right owner sees the mutual benefit, we could make it work with multiple properties.

I love walking into a house that reeks of pet urine; turns off other buyers (smells like money to me).  

You don't want it smelling like fish or whatever else other people cook. 

I remember the podcast ( I forget which one) where the guest trained his small son to walk in the house with him, take a big sniff and say "Smell that? 

his lawyer is protecting him as he should.. these strategies will work for someone who is well capitalized but for beginners its a great way to foul up a seller and them selves.

As soon as I and renewed the lease the tenant wrote me this long message with all these things wronge, including drain smells bad(she’s been putting bleach down the drain to kill the odor, the lights in the kitchen and bedroom are flickering(this ones easily fixable) & the bathroom floor is in-caving because of water damage(she suggested a new shower door).

They told me he should have immediately taken steps to mitigate damages, i.e. dry out the carpet, walls etc. so he might have a bit of a battle on his hands with them.