When renting by room, having long term leases is actually harmful and not your goal.

A good habit to get into is all of the large commercial firms, JLL, Cushman, CBRE, Avison release market reports each quarter and has a lot of information on what happened the past quarter and some perspective of what is coming.  

If you are not getting sufficient explanation or are second guessing the Realtor there should be no harm in interviewing others.Good luck and keep making offers.

No harm in asking a rent with the option to purchase.  

I guess I will run the numbers again with a worst case scenario.I'd say if you find a thread that's an oldie but a goodie, that there is usually little to no harm done to put a fresh post in there to revive it back to the top of the forums.Having said that, you do have to realize that dollar amounts might differ drastically with a large time having elapsed since the dollar amounts were originally posted.As to plumbing unable to hold air pressure, that could be attributed to a wide variety of things, from an open faucet to all copper being stripped from the plumbing.

It really takes some extra effort to make spaces habitable that were not orignally intended to be habitable.

It doesn't do any harm if undisturbed, but if it's in the ceiling and you go to remove it, it becomes a serious health hazard.

You're not harming the agent, because now that agent can be just a little more boastful to his client when he talks about "the open house was so great, I've sent X+1 disclosure packages out this week!"

Right now, due to child tax credits and filing jointly, I pay much less than I otherwise would (so I get a 'return') but I want to be in the habit of setting aside the money for down the road.I would also ignore appreciation and inflation.  

Guests should not be parking, doing laundry or showering regularly at the property.No harm in asking questions and checking it out in person.