Inspect to verify compliance.

The buyers need (not request) a full 5%-6% seller assist and become complete menaces and eat into your margins with lengthy repair addendums following inspections. 

They judge one building a duplex, and the other two townhouses, by visual inspection.

When you purchased the current property you should have expected many of your repairs if you performed an inspection.

Nobody is living in the unit, the city came out to inspect the unit, nobody was there to let them in (it failed because of this).

One approach we've taken is implementing a move-in and move-out inspection (with photos) to limit wear and tear.

You submit a letter of intent to get the property, do inspections first in New York after your offer is accepted, and after inspections are resolved, your attorney then writes the contract.

I typically build in an inspection contingency into my offers (yes this reduces my competitiveness of my offers, but its also a safety net to protect my bottom line).

I am an actual owner with 100+ units in the city of Cleveland and the cities around it and put together a rolodex of references for services like property management, inspections, contractors etc. if you want it. 

My son did this for his first home and, other than paying for some lender fees and his home inspection up front, he only paid $11 at closing.