While unfortunately I don´t have any good input for you, I have to say that this reminds me of one of the BP podcasts; someone recounted a story where their 2 local roofing options turned out to be owned by a father and son, where they significantly overbid one price and still overbid the lower one, but in comparison the lower bid looked much more attractive.

I often will recount phrases or lessons when I am training new agents.I haven't heard of your exam prep course. 

It's not a huge success, but it's something.I've listened to three or four podcasts, and in one the speaker recounted how he had bought a foreclosure that was demolished, and negotiated with the city on the demolition cost and was able to save about 50% of the cost they were charging him.

The list of cringe moments would be too long to recount, but now I see how people say 90-95 percent of landlords are just terrible at the business of it.  

Because of this, I always brainstorm what would happen if I was dragged in front of the board to account for whatever issue I'm dealing with.In this case, if you were standing before the adjudicator, they would likely ask the tenant to recount what they were told by the technician.

I was cringing this entire thread, recounting the sob stories, angry words, and the amount of trash left over from evicted tenants.

I then recountered at 260k. 5k to at least try to get it resurfaced!!

Just a quick recount of my 1st property/1st multifamily in Roswell GA 2016 .....

One of the biggest lessons I am reminded of and hear my clients recount is this:  tasks ALWAYS take longer than you think they will. 

As for the lender's initial counteroffer, you need to be countering and re-countering until they call the police on you for harassment.