This resulted in the tenant having to pay "additional rent" of $150 each month ($75 loss to them in early payment discount and $75 for having to post to pay or vacate).

I understand that the mortgage payment isn't technically an operating expense, but you still have to account for it if you wanna know your profits/losses.  

Or if the 2nd floor tenants are actually unreasonably noisy, send them a warning letter and then if no change, ask them to leave.That said, if you want to placate the first floor tenants you could have an "energy audit" by RISE Engineering where they look at the house especially in terms of heat loss and come up with a proposal to add insulation and other energy-saving features (and give you free LED light bulbs :).I'm not saying that insulation is the same as sound proofing at all.

We hope that with help of this forum and community, we will minimize our losses and maximize our gains.Our plan is to payoff our home and begin investing at the same time.

Forcing someone to take a loss on a property;3.

My question is; I am looking to by a commercial property 10 unit apartment, but the seller does not have a profit or loss statement and is not willing to go back and do her books, she does have 3 year tax statement.

At 80k underwater no one is going to buy the property at a loss unless there's an aggressive outside of the box strategy, What area of NY are we talking about?

If you have other stock that have taken a loss, you can sell those to offset the gains.  

My question is; I am looking to by a commercial property 10 unit apartment, but the seller does not have a profit or loss statement and is not willing to go back and do her books, she does have 3 year tax statement.

Lastly, when a self-employed individual maintains more than one trade or business, the questionarises as to whether the limit is based on the sum of earned income or loss from all trades orbusinesses under common control [as defined in IRC 414( c)) as modified by IRC 415(h)], or ifonly the trade or business maintaining the plan being tested is used.For purposes of the IRC 415limit, earned income for the self-employed individual is based on the sum of the earned incomefrom all the controlled trades or businesses, regardless of whether the related employer maintainsa qualified plan [Reg. 1.415-2(d)(6)].EXAMPLE: Andy, a sole proprietor, operates a law practice as a sole proprietorand has $100,000 of self-employment income from such practice for 2008 (prior tothe reduction for one-half of self-employment tax).