Matthew, I feel  your frustration and remember being in  your shoes. 

Long term commercial debt lenders make adjustments but does not generally follow that.For high quality assets i am currently seeing about 4.8 percent for 10 year debt. 5 year fixed I am seeing about 4.5%.If a life insurance company they can go lower on rates but want minimum 35% down and more picky on the properties to lend on.Seller financing can be great BUT just remember to not way overpay for an asset just to get that.

I believe it's been done before but remember the cost to do so in some places can be very high. 

@Danny MallerNext time, and as you build your empire use the link below to look up any City of Chicago code violations. https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bldgs/...And if you cant remember this link just google "Chicago Building Violations". 

I would actually discriminate AGAINST someone trying to "bribe" me, because in my experience the ideal kinds of tenants just dont do this.

Ideally, I would like to have a contractor with me as I scout for prospective deals, but I know this is unrealistic and unprofessional (don't want to waste the contractor's time).

In an ideal world, you would want to compete on both.The cost can get pretty high if you're working with firms.

But remember, that's a lot of guessing/estimating/expecting...

Remember, your goal is cash flow.

I am the biggest optimist out there, but remember that the best numbers usually come in right before the recession.