It will be a short term Airbnb rental.Have had success with two other Airbnb properties that I currently arbitrage in the local Pittsburgh area.Purchased the home far below market value with a probate sale.

Your chance of success is much higher that way.

Partnering with a wholesaler sounds fine, but check the real estate licensing laws in your state before bringing a buyer for a commission.You might consider getting your real estate agent's license and legitimately earn what your skills, drive, and experience truly command. exactly wholesaling or bird dogging is not a life time or long time occupation  RE sales can be lifetime and if your any good at it at about year 10 you should be getting all your sales from referrals and such.

Luckily, I didn’t give my real last name, and I actually live and work in Southern California so there’s little chance this will be linked to me or my case.

If the change has occurred and buyers are now doing this, surprised not discussed more  You as the buyer is paying for the agents commission one way or another , either by a higher sales price , or by cutting a check to your agent . 

Our property management company wants to sell 3 apartment blocks for us approximate value 2m maybe slightly more, can we ask them to accept 4% sales commission?

There's a good chance the issue(s) you face has already been discussed and answered.Ask questions in the appropriate forum.

Thus, they are appraised as such - valued based off the sales comp approach - i.e how much have other similar single family homes sold for?

It may interest you.Best wishesI excluded duplexes because at least in the SF Bay Area, SFR earn a premium on sale over Duplexes, and duplexes get higher price/sq ft over 3-4 units.

Rather than hire as many sales people to do follow ups--set up automated text messages, emails, letters, or postcards to be sent to your best prospects.- Podio has really good integration with other services--like RightSignature for eSignature, Google Docs/Drive, Dropbox, Twilio for SMS, Lob for physical mail--either for marketing or other workflows like invoicing, and a ton of other services.