Besides, your lower offer could get accepted and as such, you would be leaving money on the table.

In an ideal partnership, everyone brings something unique to the table.

Bryan, you have thrown a lot out on the table.

The big question is what skills, assets, traits, etc do you bring to the table to mitigate the risk that would otherwise be inherent in this investment.If the answer is none, and unless the upside makes the risk worthwhile, you should probably pass.

Often times lump all settlement fees and prorations into what they call "closing costs".If you're going FHA and the property was not owner occupied (likely not since it's a duplex), the property tax escrow will consume a lot of the money you need to bring to the table.

I would bet most handyman used by the REI industry are under the table I would bet 80% don't even file tax returns.

Don't double close unless its an REO, why pay for transactional funding ( assuming you can't bring the funds to the table) when you can just assign the contract.

When I post market reports, I'd like to include an Excel chart that shows trends.I'm also having difficulty with HTML tables.

If you allow possesssion, get rent cash in hand, paid out of closing, as any reduction in the sale price won't save you much at all at the table.

If your profit is large enough you can also do a back-to-back close, but you will need to bring your own funds to the table or line up transactional funding.