First just want to state, she is your girlfriend not your wife, which is very different in regards to financial status/situation.For me its simple, I am buying this asset and taking on the risk of renovating it and as part of it will be seeking to earn income from it to better myself in the future as I know a W2 job and a 401k does not get you far in retirement.

I've played around with upping price and significantly reducing the cleaning fee and removing the grill fees but it didn't really change much.

That is not agent driven.Agents will "over value" to get the listing (I call it being deceitful, but I digress), then they reduce the asking price to try to get the sale.

I wish I could do more to reduce the power of the OTAs. 

Haha,I was famous there once upon a time - https://9now.nine.com.au/the-block/i-doubled-my-money-on-aus...Negative gearing is buying a property where the rent doesn't cover your mortgage.You tally up the total monthly losses and let's say you where negative $30,000 for that year.You earn $100,000 from your salary that year.But you would only pay income tax on $70,000 as your property was negatively geared by $30,000 for that year.Make sense?

We put both houses in the MLS and have had to reduce the price by more than 14% and still no offers. 

. - Interest earning (not a ****** 0.2% either).

I’ll be happy to credit you $200 (1/2 percent) when we close in 30 days, earning you 6% on that money. 

I don't know of any mortgage where you can reduce your principle down by that much over 2 years!

Hence they already tell to reduce the rate possibly in September.