Hey Peter, thanks for the comment and the insight and you are absolutely correct about knowing what sells in your market, I see this happen with a lot of fix and flip projects that are just in the wrong areas, the investor gets the house for a good price however spends too much on repairs and adds a lot of luxury thinking that it will push the ARV significantly higher than the average in the area.

I am looking to house hack in Montclair but I'm not familiar enough with the rent amounts and areas of Montclair to see if it makes sense. 

Also, in a mainstream asset class like value-added multifamily, I see no reason to take a risk on a sponsor that doesn't have full real estate cycle experience or that lost anything more than a small amount of money (and prefer no money lost).

The amount you'll save off of the purchase price will be significantly more than what the vacancy will cost.

My wife was tired of us working to fix up our properties and not our house. 

The house will still need to appraise for the amount of the loan if you offer a higher price in exchange for repair money from the seller.

I forget exactly the amount of time because it was so long ago.

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.

Investment Info:Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

The property will be sold upon completion.Rate:  12.05%Term:  13 months interest onlyARV:  $648,000Loan Amount:  $433,000Processing Fees:  $15,361.64 (3 pts plus processing fees)Escrow Charges:  $3,130.90Insurance/taxes:  $1,722.82Construction Holdback:  $498,361Cash to Close:  $84,762.36 In the OP, you said that the loan amount was $346k.