Should I even bother to say "I like the house, but only at x$" and leave it at that... some investor working purely cash could make her numbers fit... but not me with some interest cost... and not for my first deal... dont want to do anything too slim on the margins..I would really appreciate insight on how to approach wholesalers in this situation. 

It's just not anything that makes sense from a pure vandalism point of view. 

Pure principals payments are also anathetical to most sellers wishing to carry a contract simply because they are looking avoid paying capital gains and actually make a profit on their equity above what they would yield in a different type of investment.

Moving forward, we would like to pay him purely off % of profits with no base in order to align our interests better. 

With that said, I look at it purely as 'where can I get the best return for the risk incurred'.

Those SFH fit Brrrr vs pure cash flow better anyway.  

Recently, they have offered to "back me" with their money purely because they want to get into RE investing.

In a purely hypothetical scenario you, of course, go with the MF.  

@Edmund Ricker,Purely my opinion, but I think it's going to depend on what you think having the license will do for you.The licensing classes teach next to nothing about being a successful investor.

Same thing is true in one of my markets for run-downs, if people buy run-downs to tear them down and rebuild really nice properties for themselves they will pay more than you will 100% of the time.Also, house hacking is not a pure investment for most people its a living situation.