The price has stayed the same through the 2015 assessments.That's scary to think one year your property is at its peak and you're thinking of selling, then  a new assessment comes in and drops the total assessed value by $30,000.I understand that the assessment is not what drives the price but some people (hopefully many investors) give it a look when considering a property.This also seems to be consistent throughout the small city of Warren - not specific to 1 property.Thoughts? 

Right now, we are at Peak Note, they are just so expensive with all the new investors that have flooded the market in the last couple years.

You might consider some kind of earn out so the current owner had a defined financial incentive to remain engaged during a defined transition period.

People that earn <$50k/yr don't pay much in income taxes.

They're not collecting a fee on a vacant unit or do you have a clause like this:Service Fees: Each time Broker arranges for the Property to be repaired, maintained, redecorated, oraltered as permitted by this agreement, Owner will pay Broker a service fee equal to: (Check one boxonly.)(1) % of the total cost of each repair, maintenance, alteration, or redecoration.(2)The service fees under this Paragraph 12E are earned at the time the repair, maintenance, redecoration, or alteration is made and are payable upon Owner's receipt of Broker's invoiceIf they are making money off the repair or each time they are meeting someone there to give estimates, then yes I would expect them to work harder and faster.  

My question, with the scarcity of good deals at the peak of a market, is it worth taking on this project?

If you want to earn your fee go get the number the bank is willing to sell for.  

You're just trying to earn a little income to offset your vacation spot.On your other topic, yes, Equity Accrued is the equivalent of paying down your mortgage every year.

This flipper has earned a reputation among the children of the original residents (who all went to school together and still talk from time to time) as someone who can solve their parent's house problem, including all the stuff they don't want to deal with.Advertising that you buy homes as-is, and that the house doesn't need to be cleaned out first may be a marketing point to touch on.

If we close on the 1st we skip two months of mortgage which would buy us time to earn more income after we leave our owner occupied rental.The down side of this is that we will lose our rate of 4.0percent.I'm not sure if there are any other pros and cons.