I have a back round in residential real estate.

When it does, I ask the buyer to make a decision between us - and yes, I have walked away in those situations.As to the future, the key item that all of the crystal ball gazers are overlooking is that real estate is not a commodity the way an airline ticket or a new Chevy is. 

An old friend of mine offers dating advice to young people that applies here, "Be thankful for the ones that get away."

The trick for the investor (and the OP) is to have a big enough pipeline of deals to account for the ones like this that get away or, in my case, the borrowers that extend my timeline to liquidation. 

Big ticket items such as hvac i only replace if i need to.

Any larger ticket items are brought forward by the management company to myself and partner in which we then decide what is the best course of action to take.

When it gets rounded to short form on many sites, it shows as $400k instead of $399k.

My guess the seller thought he could get away without going through a subdivision and sell the units individually, and that isn't the case.

I look at the major ticket items like ac, furnace, roof etc. 

Reply: "Ok, I've submitted the maintenance ticket, but that's distinct from your rent.