Not sure if the upstairs tenant (heavyset person with a dog) plays a role.Seeking suggestions.

As others have alluded to, buying larger units or a house near the beach is a better play. 

If you are looking to buy in PA, its possible you can qualify for PHA KFIT program that gives you a 5% closing cost forgivable loan.

Generally speaking, Boston proper is an appreciation market (low cap rates) unless you have a solid value-add play.

I made a few thousand less than expected but I figure that's just the cost of doing business sometimes.Based on my experience I wouldn't let the remote possibility that a homeowner might go into greed mode dissuade you from doing these deals.

He had other projects that he committed to.Want to play a challenging game?

If they want to donate it to a church, it's up to them to do so.Third, while I'm not an attorney, I would be careful about the possibility of this person later suing you for "not paying" them if you comply with their odd request.

I still have a full-time job, but my goal is to start with 1-2 flips/year for the first couple of years, then ramp up to 5+/year.Right now, I’m focused on learning as much as possible—market analysis, deal sourcing, estimating rehab costs, and raising capital.

But ya have to make some educated prognostications in life.Add this to the information your processing - What your talking about doing is eliminating around $4000 or interest expense (which is deductible anyway so really could be a real impact of eliminating $2800 or so) of debt in exchange for paying over $10K in capital gains tax (don't forget possible state gains tax as well).  

But I am open to other financing possibilities.