It's always amusing to me that many of the same folks on this forum that routinely trash property managers as completely unnecessary, are simultaneously pumping that they are worth 6 or 7 percent of the sales price for their own expertise.  

My question is, can I have it approved by the city after the fact without having to get plans, permits, unnecessary contractors, etc.? 

However, if I make an offer and no agent is involved and then the seller hires an agent, the seller is paying the agent since they added the unnecessary expense of an agent.

Too many photos (59) for the average person to want to click through on a house this size, the ones just of your artwork are unnecessary, and there are duplicates of other areas that don't add anything new.

I'll let some other landlord take that (in my opinion, unnecessary) risk.Good luck!

You are making them chase their tails and do extra unnecessary work (likely without additional compensation).

Anything below that, you aren't being trained "one on one" and anything more than that is unnecessary to pay.

There is nothing that needs to be solved and further, the suggestion of using the term "housing provider" creates unnecessary ambiguity when the entire rationale for the change according to the OP is to eliminate ambiguity.

You are creating a unnecessary headache. 

I agree with avoiding unnecessary risk especially with IRA funds.