It's a 2-flat in Chicago.

A piece of crap house with a flat roof got hit harder than a cute bungalow because, hey, it's not as easy to sell and costs more to repair.

I know it would be a bad idea to fudge on the 50% as my targets are 80-100 years old with flat tar/gravel roofs.

That usually helps instead of them giving a flat rejection, if it's presented well.Michael hit on something too, it's too bad that we have Realtors who are one, really not qualified to assess a good listing price but it's even worse when a Realtor agrees to almost any price to get a listing.

I pay him a flat fee of $400/wk.

I know of one farmer getting $2,000 (or a bit more) per acre for flat row crop land.  

Rents are flat, slightly declining.

Do you have them quote you a flat fee for the entire project or hourly?

Which is normally some flat fee or 1/2 a month’s payment.

Assuming the market stays essentially flat for the next decade, I am thinking I will look at the mortgage and determine when the house will hit 25% equity, and agree to get the owner off the note around that time (25% EQ + 6-12 months cushion).