Otherwise, revenge traveling, and short term to midterm stays are declining.

Most property management companies will offer to place tenants for you for half of the first month's rent, so going forward if you decide you don't want to do this yourself that is one task you can hire out.If you want to know more, this is a great article that explains how to decline an application and has a sample rejection letter:https://www.apartments.com/rental-manager/resources/screenin...

Is the neighborhood in decline?

I decided that since I expect my market to decline in the next year or 2 I would work on getting big ticket items taken care of. 

These neighborhoods have already peaked, declined, and bottomed out.

Vacancy, damage, natural disaster, declining neighborhood etc etc.

Well I explained that I'm working on my own REI company and let him know that when i find deals I can send them to him and assign the contract My question is: Am I missing out on anything by declining his offer to bird dog for him and instead suggesting to wholesale a deal?

So far I have declined the responsibility of partnering with them.

An IRR will usually be higher than the CoC unless the residual sales price is lower than the purchase price (perhaps a large tenant’s lease expires or the market is in decline and the model assumes negative rental growth over the hold period).

You can tell the truth, lie or decline to state (as you have) and that is your right.