Further, you can also choose to have the property hazard insurance paid out at closing as well, and not pre-paid.

Do a last month vs 2 months pre-paid.  

An insurer willing to offer vacant property / builder risk coverage, preferably on a month to month basis rather than pre-paid quarterly.

By default this VAFF is financed into your loan so at the time of closing your 100% loan (because VA is 0% down) is effectively 102.15% loan to value (ratio of loan to the value of your home/property).The reason I say this is because after 6 months of payments you can do a VA IRRRL (interest rate reduction refinance loan) and the VA FF on a VA to VA loan is only .50% so you'll be able to most likely lower your rate in between the two loans and get away from paying both VAFF on the purchase loan and the refinance (VA IRRRL) loan as well there by saving you the 2.15 pts upfront.Yes, there is a bit of interest rate risk however to avoid 2.15% points upfront into your loan is huge, and the strategy may very well be worth it and is worth it for most (I've done many of these succesfully).If you structure your VA loan correctly in unison with a RE agent whom is a good negotiator you may pay no VA FF or closing or prepaids as well. 

You don't want tenants claiming after the sale to have prepaid rent, owned the appliances or that he had some other agreement with the prior owners.

Some of that will be the pre-paid costs like insurance and taxes.Idea for coming up with the $1K:Sell some stuff on craigs list or e-bay.Borrow from friends or family.Prosper or lending club.Credit card cash advance.401k loan.An advance from your job.Get a personal loan from a bank or credit union.None of these are great ideas, but we're only talking a grand here, and if this happens like you expect you can pay it back pretty quickly.

So you pre-paid the $30k for the work and now he's essentially ghosting you?

With 3.5% down, you're usually ( here anyway) going to be into it for about 10% including closing costs, prepaid tax and insurance escrows, etc. unless you're getting a "rebate" from the lender, which means you're paying a slightly higher interest rate.

So they countered with 55k and nothing for closing.Closing costs + prepaids + down payment are $8720I don't have an estimate for insurance, taxes are $980Repairs are $1k + fenceI'm my property manager, but I'm paying $150 finder fee and $150 for MLS listing (should I bother with MLS).My lender is talking about rolling closing into the loan for a higher %.

You'll need another 5% or so cash for PMI, closing, prepaid insurance and taxes, etc.