Just treat it like a buffet.  

@Jd Martin @Brent Coombs  I always knew when the Guru's had come through PDX.my agents would come running to me about this big time investor that was going to buy 5 props a month.I would tell them to invite them to lunch ( my treat)  I did this to size them up.. 99%  No Money no skills and just looking to abuse my poor agents.. did I feel bad when I flushed them out and put them in their place at lunch ...

If you are looking at SF properties, treating your tenants well, good screening, and a liability policy will provide you the best protection.

I am not familiar with the 2-4 units segment but my hunch is that you should treat your underwriting the same way as you would for single family homes.

Hi @Amiris Brown If this is your first purchase i wouldnt recommend starting out with a big project like that...usually it turns out bigger than what you thought... in any case if you really like that property and it has lots of issues i would suggest send the listing agent a backup contract. these usually fall through and you might be bae to pick it up at a lower price. also fnme- homepath stopped negotiating high price reductions about a year ago.. but they usually have an automated system that reduce the price once a month..also something very important to consider- if your'e planing to buy this property and keep it as a rental- because it has lots of mold you have have to get a remediation certificate that the house has been treated and clean. otherwise the tenants can hold you liable and take you to court if they feel the property  still have mold ,that can be very costly... 

Not seeing any reason to treat this as a loss with the tenant though.

@Steve Rozenberg If you keep your rentals in great shape and treat your tenant right, you may not need to "reward" good tenants.

Hope this year is treating you well.I had this question come up for my Property Managers for my SFH out of state.

The current landlord has minimum expenses, and is treating the billboard as traditional commercial real estate evaluation.

A few days before closing, a company treated and re-stained all the decks in the community.