Why do you waste your time and money with all that SFH stuff?

Do anything else seems like a waste of time to me. 

It's a good relationship and not just about the commissions.Bottom line with any agent is that they want to know they are not wasting their time and energy for nothing.

I would like to finance it as an owner occupied home so that I can minimize my down-payment, is this possible considering my situation?  

So I want to get to the decision-makers without necessarily revealing the entire topic so I can at least get a direct refusal, instead of someone who decides not pass on the message as they benefit from the property remaining as it is currently, or in the future, and I keep  wasting time on the property anyway.   

I think with family the main goal should be to not lose money, so be prepared to "waste" your time if the deal is a break-even deal. 

I want to minimize expenses as well as taxes. 

Going by the hearsay of the sister might prove to be a waste of your time. 

Will save you tremendous stress and legwork once you're in escrow.And re-reading your post, I'd say the numbers don't make this a GREAT deal, but if it's totally renovated you'll likely have minimal costs the first two years.

This way you can just deny them on those grounds before you run their background and essentially waste their money.