Contrary to most business lending, the REI industry has a lot of "non-bank" lenders that provide attractive loans that can lower your cost of capital and improve your profit/cash flow. 

With the fund I used, they had a month where they had a few defaults, the return was a bit lower, and they sent out an email apologizing for the lower yield. 

Most listings have 2.5-3% allocated to the buyers agent already written into the listing agreement but you could write into the offer something lower, adjust the offer price lower accordingly and then pay your agent directly instead. 

I'm also considering Halethorpe because it's a good commuter location.Some people really like supporting the city in which case , northeast Baltimore would seem to the best place to buy a single family, in my opinion given the taxes situation and given that none of those areas are walkable I’d rather just be in the county and pay Lower taxes, and it’s not like northeast Baltimore is much that much cheaper than Baltimore county, hathorpe is mixed, arbutus is nice, I hate the housing stock there, would rather be in Catonsville if I was considering western Baltimore county. 

If it is someone you know you can give them a straight return as if its a loan - can provide a lower interest rate to provide upside - it really depends on the lender and what are they concerned with and what is their risk profile. 

Also HELOC's typically have lower interest rates than personal loans since it is secured by your home.

There are some zip codes where you can indeed get above market rent with S8 (even after deducting utility allowance), but some where they are lower.

If they have a good interest rate it might be worth looking to see if you could assume their loan to take advantage of the lower rate.  

If you are borrowing $150k, rates will not likely drop enough for you to justify a refinance due to lower rates.

Is the higher price agent inflating to get the listing or is the lower price agent just not keyed in well enough in the specific neighborhood?