The new tenant had been warned there might be a delay and was OK with that.If you only charge him some nominal amount a couple of weeks could turn into a couple of months.

The realtor warned me that they wouldn't budge on the price and we all other investors had been through the building already and deemed it un-worthy of the amount of time and money it would take to turn a profit.  

Ned is correct and is smart to warn you.  

(Great way to starting building a realtor-investor relationship)The bank makes the final decision regarding price after they order either a BPO or Appraisal or both depends on the lender.The short sale process takes usually takes 90-120 or longer days depending on the sellers cooperation and how fast the agent works with the bank submitting paperwork received from the seller but ive seen them go 6-12 months :(One warning really try and screen your seller to make sure there not using you the agent to just buy ore time in the property you must take there word on this but hopefully they have good intentions.The uglier the property for me personally I only love properties that look like the guy from lord of the rings (The Precious)Sorry for the lengthy reply just wanted to be thorough.Good luck!

At the same time, the expense and ongoing maintenance is something my investor friends warn me about and I have a little experience with already.What would you do?

I read what you posted and when given "Don't worry the wait will be worth it" type of emails, that sends a warning sign.  

You can also talk to the property management company currently running the property (if there is one) to get this informationExpenses: Similar to income, details about expenses should come directly from the seller (last warning not to trust pro-forma data!)

(warning links to PDF) The West Oakland specific plan puts West Oakland on track for smart, and profitable, infill development that will further boost your appreciation oriented investment angle. 

One of our tenants sent her a warning letter from their lawyer, and she kept quite for a while.we have also told her to call the police couple times, surely enough she never called.I think telling her to call police actually help the situation becasue her complains were based on no basis, and she probably don't want to get in trouble for calling police because of silly reasons.Our HOA has helped a bit too, a lot of time conflicts go directly to HOA, which save us some crazy phone calls and emails.for you, how was the noise level between the upper and lower level?

Thanks for taking the time to warn others.