Renting in Seattle has its challenges, as Henry is oft to tell you, but you can be successful if you state your criteria clearly and hold your applications to the criteria. 

Can you cover all these repairs and holding costs for a long time?

Investment Info:Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

You can refi,,, rinse and repeat. OR

With our lenders, if the borrower refi's or sells the home they get refunded the remaining balance that the seller paid for the temporary buydown, since the lender holds it in their own escrow account.Its a dollar for dollar subsidy basically, seller funded to help the borrower the first couple years in the loan.  

Does the basis remain in place since the seller would presumably hold the title until the payments are complete?

i would be purchasing the property with an FHA loan. and im also looking for solid cashflow + long term holding 

It was a little frustrating because I'd been in communication with these lenders from very early on, sharing all details with them from the start and repeatedly remarking on the Trust ownership, and stayed in contact with them throughout the discovery process as I firmed up everything on my end, and now I have the plans, the contractors, the OOP funds, and basically everything else ready to get started within 1-4 months, but I'm back at square one re: loan.

Buy and Hold?

They are much like an HOA where they often aren't working towards the same objective you are.Renting, like you said, is just throwing away your money usually.I think I would consider the hold-time for your investment.