Ended up tearing off the entire roof and rebuilding it from scratch, it was caving in on the front of the house and sagging throughout. 

Give a $5 bottle of Red (Cave & Cove Cab). 

This tenant has aggressively pursued the owner about cutting the tree and the owner caved in (despite my gentle protests).Tree trimmers are coming in a few days.

He put him in a sealed off cave in the pit with open blazes and four extra furnaces blasting.When he came back, days later, the Cajun was sitting pretty, had barely begun to bead up with sweat.The devil was outraged.

Well I'm delighted that "Orange County agents" expect to make 20-50% of a 3% commission (obviously), this is true in other markets as well.

If the charges are legitimate, then I would personally stand by the deductions and not cave in just because a tenant threatened a lawsuit. 

I appreciate all of the insight, this particular property would take a major overhall, huge wall caving in, in the garage, new roof, kitchen needs remodeled, bathroom needs remodeled, the entire yard needs redone, the whole house needs carpet, new walls in some rooms and paint, you could easily sink 50,000.00 into the home if you don't do your own work.

I was amazed and, as the potential purchaser, delighted ... despite being full, the building is performing at ~84% of its potential due to the number of below market rents.Finding these tenants was easy :-).

If you are buying one house ever, then try to negotiate commissions, if that agent caves, and takes little to nothing, then you've found a pretty poor negotiator, and should probably hang up the phone and call the next guy.

Just bug the heck out of them until they cave!