even though its BP blasphemy to have cash tied up.. its just too painful.  

Its with the intent to "tie up the property" per se, and reasonably ask for a lower price based on the appraisal and inspection. 

Tie the damn thing up in contract so you know it's yours if you want it, and then figure out if you actually want it (that X day window until your earnest money deposit is due is ideally when you decide).

I would be very interested to hear from long time investors who have weathered the storms either crashing-and-burning and coming out stronger or simply getting through the cycle bruised but not battered.Having searched for a topic and thread like this one, I don't think there is one quite exploring this aspect of real estate investing where we lay bare all our failures but it would be incredibly instructive to us newbies to learn from those who have gone before and come out the other side weary and with scars to show from the battle.Hope you will find int in yourself to share so those of us who are new can learn.

A significant earnest money deposit makes your offer stronger.

I do have a bonus tied to them reducing expenses and getting the occupancy up but it is independant of the basic 4% of collected rents.On one hand I kind of like that everyone is afraid of multis.

You can't do very much with all that equity tied up in your primary residence until you sell.

Don't tie yourself up with a bunch of potentially mediocre deals.

Item 2 kind of ties in with how many loans they'll issue once the first set rolls out.

Series tied at 2 games a piece.