I thought a soft market means its a buyer's market and there are a lot more sellers than buyers so prices would be decreasing.

Typically that is paid to a broker-dealer and is included in the total raise, slightly decreasing the investor CAP rate.

It is also possible that a contractor may purchase it because s/he would have the skills that decreases the labor and materials cost for this kind of project.

In my opinion values of those properties are only going to increase as vacancies continue to decrease and the metro NYC area keeps rising in demand. 

Even a 10% decrease in rent is better than 2 vacant months.

Then you could decide to walk away after decreasing the value of the asset.

The easiest way to satisfy this rule is not to increase the numerator, but to decrease the denominator.

One week we are up and the next we are down.There is no arguing that the volume of sales has decreased since the hay day of 2012 and even Q1 of 2013.

(Increased durability also decreases vacancy rate, in my opinion, since the unit stays nicer longer.)

I have seen some they have gone over with hardboard or even thicker plywood over the old subfloor, but I don't like that option because it always seems to leave uneven places and decreases your headroom which is tight in older MHs even further.