You will be better served to re establish your personal credit.In order to start rebuilding credit, the most pressing time-sensitive matter is to establish long-term open lines with good payment history as soon as possible.Open a secured credit card with a limit of 4x of a regularly recurring bill - cell phone, water bill, etc.

We need to be sensitive to what other operators are charging.  

Is this a crazy deal to run into or what other safeguards can we arm ourselves with?

However, if you study the different theories you'll learn there are ways to safeguard yourself from those shifts.

So just wanted to know if it makes sense to give a low ball offer like 12-14K just to safeguard myself against the unknowns.

I assume most PM companies (especially the large ones) have go-to contractors (perhaps even contracts), which saves them lots of time, and hopefully saves the customer a little bit of money.Also, keep in mind that something like HVAC going out in the summer may be time sensitive...Personally, if I were you, and I knew the HVAC was on its last legs, I would have gotten quotes earlier, and been ready with your own contractor when the time came. 

Andrew Campbell I'm in a somewhat similar situation, and I've visited a total of 9 local banks looking for favorable options on both the purchase and the access-the-equity parts of financing.Many people throw around portfolio loans, cross-collateralizing, seconds, HELOCs, and other stuff -- unless you're not sensitive to interest rates, I don't see how any of it will work in today's reality (in my market, at least).

Perhaps I'm more sensitive to it since I dealt with many short sales, and the last thing I'm going to do is let a wholesaler tie it up for 90 days, then walk, and my seller is 90 days closer to a Foreclosure auction.  

Renter's insurance can safeguard your relationship with your insurance carrier.

As the tenant market is very price sensitive, the only reason I would ever consider buying a townhouse is if I could not meet the price point with other types of housing.