My only backup plan if I can't get verified funds is to assume the worst and to drop my counter offer even lower than my original due to the risk I would be taking on, and then when I do my in person inspection try and guess what rents are fair market for the empty units, and ask as many tenants as I can what they pay in rents monthly.Seller should give you all of his bank statements for the time he owned it, plus the operating financial documents (including rent rolls)that he received when he bought.Then find an apartment broker in the area and find out about rents in the building and in the immediate area.

Quote from @Daniel Frank: Quote from @Bruce Lynn:Good news then on that one if it is cash flowing well. 

Hey Marc, When tracking your real estate activities for STR management, particularly to prove material participation, it’s important to clearly document each task you perform.

Consider having a mold inspection done and include the report in your listing documents to remove doubt for future buyers

So after 1.5 years of searching, putting in offers, losing deals after inspections, yesterday I finally closed on my first investment property.I put together a document of all the lessons I learned that I did not know prior, despite countless hours of investigation on my end. 

In any case, it needs to be properly documented. 

How do you guys document?

What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.?

The good news is that in cities like Berkeley with aggressive rent control, there is always a shortage of available rental units (the rent board bureacrats constantly find ways to perpetuate the housing shortage upon which their jobs depend).

During the mortgage crisis i worked as a loan officer for a very short period , in that time frame i saw how shady that part of the business was, customers where signing documents blind and for that very reason most lost their homes, everyone was taking full advantage of the situation and trying to get a wealthy as fast as possible before the party was over.What i dont like working with loan brokers/officers is that there is a lot of jargon in their paper work that they only understand , i wouldnt want to get stuck in bad mortgage deal .