@Robert Soto @Nick RutkowskiWhat Robert said is 100% but it is also worth stating that there are many contractors who completely understand this and will use it towards their advantage.Plane and simple is the "bid low to get the job and then hit them with extras " strategy.

Drop the loan into the top of the board, let it hit some pegs as it goes down and the best loan for you is the one at the bottom of the board.StephaniePS  Welcome to Biggerpockets!

I finally hit the point where I don't have to work.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $13,000

Cash invested: $35,000

Single story with a walk-out basement duplex, newly remodeled.

What...

If you hit it out of the park with your own deal you may be able to do a few more without any investors and then get OPM involved to scale up to bigger stuff. 

It may just be that the seller wants too much and there is no solution but I was hoping investors with more experience than myself in this area could provide some insight into how they would value this and how much of a hit to cash flow would be acceptable in exchange for future potential.The details:4-unit purpose built building in an average residential areaCap rates for 1-4 unit properties range from 6-10% depending on quality, location, conforming vs non-conforming etc.Asking price $520k, dropped from original $550k and has been on market for a few monthsRents are ~$34,000 and should be ~$48,000Expenses (excluding maintenance) are ~$9,000 - This puts the asking price cap rate at ~4.7% (not including maintenance)- We estimate that at asking price it would be about -$260/month in cash flow and break even at a PP of ~$450k assuming our typical 10% of rent for maintenance- We estimate the building would be worth around $530k at market rentsWe were thinking the cash flow neutral price would be our best offer, but their indication was that they are looking for close to 500k. 

@Sunshine Chow@Joe Homs Hit just about every question you could want to see.When someone makes a post similar to yours I put these questions out there.After finding an HML that will lend where your prospect house is (most will only lend in major metro areas or have steeper rates if they do lend outside metro areas), I would ask these questions:What is your investor success rate?

I'm struggling with being able to find properties that cash flow but aren't so under priced that they hit the 2% rule.  

I have a 4 car driveway and can almost throw a baseball and hit a bus bench, so I was good anyways.

I have to build large margins into my numbers to hit my targets.