I usually offer $25 less per month for 2-yr than the 1-yr renewal option depending on rent range.

You need to determine what rate of return you would like to make it worth it for you (while of course keeping in mind what the market rates are in your area for interest rate and points - in the Phila area you can generally expect private loans to be in the 11-14% range and 2-4 points - but there are a lot of factors that go into the rate such as LTV, strength and experience of the borrower, 1st position vs. 2nd position, and so on).

The longer drive to urban job centers outside of commuter range kept those places from getting too crazy in price because the lower local wages kept it in check.

When someone goes after a landlord, is there a certain range that settlements typically fall within?

With $20k in savings and an additional $4k monthly saving rate, I'm navigating my next steps carefully, especially since I value starting with a substantial equity position in any deal.Here are the options I'm contemplating:Invest in a Low Entry Property: With my capacity for a 20% down payment, I'm considering properties in the $100k-$120k range.

Normally it ranges from half a month to a month rent.

That's why the range of the loan amount varies and the timing varies, it just depends on your credit and how many cards they can get for you.

As a seller, I'd prefer having due diligence money that I can credit back to buyer at closing but it's mine if they release, as I've dealt with too many buyers nit-picking over $10 inspection items like the oven range safety thing or use the inspection period to back out if a better deal hits the market or try to negotiate a lower price even if no big issues found, and I think due diligence money solves those problems.  

I have ran the numbers on many calculators with a purchase range of 200-300k and the math just ain’t mathing (break even or negative per month). 

But the range of possibility is  why everyone's been pointing you to your CPA to get specific.But from a horse shoes and hand grenades level of granularity - you can access that $500K (realizing a net of $400K after taxes.