On the other hand, if you have an obstinant interloper-in-possession with a "living better through chemistry" issue, rational thinking will be for naught. 

Tenants are customers with options and rational and irrational motivations and while I might be the McDonalds of the property market, I need to keep enticing them lest they go to Burger King, In-n-Out Burger or wherever else that is not While I could seriously write a full length post about my bad experiences with property management, but I am not looking to cut their role out of my chain.

I've been tempted to reply to these types of ads before just to see what the deal was but in the back of my mind, I couldn't rationalize why in the world these guys had to resort to CL to find someone to fill those "positions."

So don't rationalize spending $2000 on granite because it lasts a long time.As you said, the counter tops will not increase the rent.

That's just rationalizing a bad deal.

It can be very profitable, but the rational is to buy and hold the paper and to be patient in get it re-performing. 

Those contribution calculations and pro-rations should include the total amounts injected including purchase price, closing costs, rehabilitation and holding costs.The rehab money can be put into an escrow account and the "draws" can be administrated based on certain milestones in the  rehab process.  

My rational was something like 1) the listing agreement expired in a week or so, 2)original principal loaned was 76k in 2004 3) had been marked down one or twice and was due for a markdown soon so I might as well take the 8-10k markdown and then ask for more.

There are two rules:1 - Only make offers based on the numbers you need, not the seller.2 - Don't rationalize rule #1...you'll lose.

What would a fair offer be for a non performing note with the following criteria:loan amount 195kdown payment: 25%Interest rate: 10%five year balloonamortized over 30originated 6/15/2018no payments made by borrower (45 days late today)licensed servicing company in placeHow well did you check out the buyers credit, debt to income ration, etc.