(This option would only work if you’re very close because a few thousand amortized over 20-30 years barely decreases the loan payment.)

It could be thousands of more dollars what rhey charge.  

A ruined deal can ruin a friendship.

As a rule of thumb, I like to allocate about $250 per month to this ($3000 per year), knowing that most months I do not experience the any repairs, but once every now and then I have to devote a few thousand to a renovation or upgrade. 

I am a fee based professional, the fee guarantees the service, and I  may be  $300 or so more a year from the other companies, but you will never have a multi thousand dollar rehab from a bad tenant on my watch.   

Thousands of my funds and clients funds are being held (tenants paid on the 1st, and today is the 17th) because of a "mismatched TIN Number".

I found this on MLS, and I used the inspection as leverage to reduce the price a few thousand dollars.

For example, if you're interested in selling your apartment, you could switch to a discount property manager for a year (going from, say 9% to 6% of rents) and increase the value of your property by 3%, netting yourself thousands on the sale. 

But spread over the life of a mortgage, the increase pales by comparison to the thousands of dollars that don't have to be produced up front.Watch Out!"

So, while an eviction of someone with a 1-year lease might be done in 30 days for a few hundred buck, you may be required to foreclose, which could take months and several thousand dollars.