The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”Theodore RooseveltApril 23, 1910Truer words were never spoken.

You sound exhausted, discouraged, and mentally defeated.

And if you determine it based on a future value, you defeat the purpose of finding a deal today and may find it challenging dealing with a seller whose circumstances have changed, especially when their property may have doubled in value as market conditions have changed (like the past few years). 

In Narragansett there have been several lawsuits over such ordinances, in some cases they have been defeated.

An agent usually charges the seller 6% so they defeat some of the purpose of Subject To.

We are trying hard to avoid being massively taxed on S Corp distributions, as this defeats the purpose of receiving the untaxed loan proceeds.

As to wifi thermostats - if you provide the wifi, I guess that might be a worthwhile option, but if you don't ...Even with you controlling the thermostat, tenants have cleverly identified methods to "defeat" landlord controls, such as ice packs placed in proximity to the thermostat, or just opening windows in the room where the thermostat is located. 

Victim mentality is self defeating.

Putting $50k of you own money into a property and leaving it there, while only getting $500/month ($6k/year in return), defeats the purpose of investing.  

The statute of limitations is difficult to defeat even by skilled litigators.