And in the meantime, he's pretty much paying all interest thanks to the standard amortization table. 

It is a very simple small home with living room, dining table area connected to a small galley kitchen with small laundry room at the end of the galley kitchen, 1 hallway closet and each 4 bedrooms have small closets.

I have seen properties initially priced 2x more than they eventually traded for and the only one left at the table willing to make a lower offer eventually got the property. 

We added a french drain at the perimeter, and a sump pit/pump and its been dry as can be since, we then ripped up all the subflooring ,replaced the floor joists and a few sections of rotted walls and continued on the with the rest of the renovation. 

Now that said, don't study something like 16th century French poetry and expect to have that safety net.

That should give you the ability to solve for max loan amount based on max debt service.Divide the max loan amount by .9 to account for the 10% you are bringing to the table and you should have your max allowable offer.

Everything was working fine during the wet season but once we went into dry season the water table dropped and we had no water. 

You must be consistent with your marketing efforts so that you are the solution lying on their table when that time comes. 

As far as what i bring to the table unfortunately  its not a tun.

It brings many good questions to the table.