I believe there may be some ethical and legal issues with doing both.

Operating expenses include (but are not limited to): taxes, insurance, management, maintenance, entity maintenance, advertising, utilities (at least during vacancies), legal fees, damage done by tenants (over the security deposit), vacancies, setouts, lawsuits, and capital expenses (not technically an operating expense).There is no 2.5% rule.

Encouraging more lenders to restructure and providing a legal framework to do so even when the loans were sold on might be the best idea.

I absolutely despise the ACLU and all the low life legal-aid lawyers in this country.Why in the world should the landlord be held responsible for damage caused by the soap opera lives of the tenants?

Not to mention looking pretty fishy.Not a lawyer and not expressing any legal opinion here.

Christian,It is not a good idea to get your legal advice from the internet.

Beyond that I would step back and stop all legal costs until I know the deal is worth fighting for.If someone else wants a bad deal that is one less investor you will need to compete with once they take this one down.

That includes taxes, insurance, vacancies, maintenance (even new, you'll have maintenance, much of it created by the tenants), legal fees, advertising, tenant screening, and who knows what else.

Assigning a contract or selling an option which you purchased is an example.There is a lot of confusion out there as to what is illegal brokerage and what is legal RE investing.

Is it legal?