The home owners refi'd the home 2x and they owe $200k but are only asking $175k for the home. if I were to take this deal at their asking price, does this mean that I will be walking into negative equity on the home?

One of the agencies that stages homes in my area has some really good statistics on staging and how they affect potential buyers.

The majority of experiences has been negative.  

Negative ... as explained by another response, 4-plex is residential property.

Hate to be negative but the reality is it's not designed for accountants to use and has so many limitations.

I am in CA I am priced out I am going to look to a place I can buy something anything hopefully it will cash flow.. when in fact if you buy a rental and the tenant simply pays it off that's a great thing any positive cash flow over the years is icing on the cake.IN our area ( I was raised in Cupertino) this is defiantly how it works.. and even a little negative cash flow is OK because you will off set that over time with massive appreciation... and or worse case scenario the tenant paid off your 600k rental and now you have a 600k asset paid for.

Since the house I bought is providing a small positive cashflow, does it basically negate the mortgages affect on my debt to income ratio?

And some banks will only let you claim 75% of rental income without 2 years proven track record... so your income side becomes negative (pre-amortiation and depreciation expense).

So you are cash flow negative even before factoring in any expenses.  

@Ryan Swanson you don't provide enough information to give you a meaningfull answer, but my concerns is that you are having fun playing with layouts and will see a negative return on investment.I assume this is a filp - first rule is: don't fix it if it's not broken.