What are you using/seeing in terms of paint and granite? 

In terms of tenants, this goes without saying but I would love to get someone who's responsible and can stay for long term.

In terms of vacancy  - keep in mind, they will likely be gone for the summer!

In terms of opportunity, up and down capitol there is a ton of development opportunities for multi-family and higher, not so much residential.

What are we looking at in terms of a buy-in?

William there are two ways you can help this seller using leases and optionsYou have to ask yourself whether not the property is going to appreciate overtimeIf you feel it's not going to appreciate, you need to get a price below the market today on your option with the seller,  if you going to do a sandwich lease option and stay in the middleIf you going to do a lease option assignment where you lease with an option from the seller and assign thevdeal to a buyer for fee, it  doesn't matter what the price is as long as the price is today's value or lessWhen I talk to sellers I don't talk about lease is an option, I first go through three columns landscape in a yellow legal pad,  and show them the basics of the choices: 1) sell with an agent and pay the customary costs include sellers concessions, agents commissions, closing costs, vacant house holding costs, etc.The first column it's important to go through an example of their house value; what ever  the fair market value is, do that exercise so that the seller truly understands he's going to net a lot less money selling agent than ur solution2) Second solution entails leasing out with the property manager, and you go through the cost to lease it out and also the cost to repair and sometimes property managers tack on other costs like padding maintenance costsThen I talk about the risks involved with leasing it to an unproven tenant, and then having to evict the tenant, lost rent for 6 to 8 weeks, clean the house, remarket and screen the new tenant, etc.Before I go through my solution, I say a "what if statement" that is something like this:Before I say the "what if statement" it's important you understand that I am using "negative phrasing" here, and ""appeal to a higher authority" which works a lot in terms deals like lease options, sub 2, and wrap purchasesHere goes.."

I didn't try to low ball because his asking price worked perfectly fine for me in terms of cash flow, and my offer I put on paper was actually a little higher than my verbal offer to him (to account for bringing an agent into the mix). 

How much equity will you have in your first property in terms of dollar value?

If you do not have experience make sure you hire the right people as a cash buyer is 100% on their own in terms of doing diligence.  

What options do I have in terms of an offer on this property if owner does not want to do a sub 2?