It might be an interesting marketing experiment to see if capitalizing every word or rearranging the letters in a letter has any negative influence on the responses in a campaign.

What extra leverage do they have to influence the occupant?

. - The city has been in a fiscal emergency for over 10 years but the state ok'ed a plan to get them out.

I would open this discussion up with their broker to navigate through the legalities & influencing factors of each option.

This man does own some property and was fiscally responsible.  

Lenders will not overturn the opinion of an appraiser, they may not influence the appraiser's opinion in any way.What you can do is to ask for a review appraiser's opinion, you can also file a complaint with the AIA as to the practice of making the adjustment. 

How much, if at all, should this influence the purchase price or decision to buy....?

He was part of my influence.

I wonder if all of the mentions are improving my influence score..

I'm old school, I believe that RE is a personal business, that personal contact is important, but I can also see that your comfort level and skill set may influence how you work, but I just prefer to answer the phone and get moving on the matter.