Below market rent is even more of a risk, because it can be considered enticement.  

If you're looking for central, a flip project will be a more enticing project.

1) Get the application and entice with "it's a condition to the BF moving in".2) Have BF sign an addendum that "both are legal tenants with equal rights and responsibilities per the Lease Agreement included by reference".Your benefit is enforcement of the lease, both would be subject to Unlawful Detainer if that became necessary and data for skip tracing

Mainly used for introduction and enticement.

In this case, its not enticing enough.

He probably wanted the extra money to entice the seller to wait a little longer.

There are a few REO listing agents in my area who are very good at convincing asset managers to list well below market value to entice above-list-price offers and multiple offers in the first day or two.If this is the case, there really may be multiple offers, and your over-list-price bids may not be the highest bids the seller is receiving.

I would look for a good deal if I had cash, unfortunately mostly everything in NYC is just about 150k+ which is way out of my limit, and a loan is something that's not very enticing at the moment.

At what purchase price would it make this deal a bit more enticing?  

Sometimes offering a few hundred dollars is enough to entice them to get out and usually leave the unit in one piece.