You can pay points to get lower interest rates with > 20% down no insurance.

I would try to lower my resell price since he is probably motivated as a seller and has earned two or three times his original price.The age of the house and all of the weather it has been through does concern me as well as the basement condition.( I might be a little biased because I've been in Dallas,Texas all of my life (for 61 years). 

Having to "come out of pocket" at all makes it typical to justify it as a  good investment.It looks like the only way to make this work would mean you would have to lower the price down substantially. 

When I sold it, paying off that loan, dropping my total debt, lowering my debt to income ratio, moving from 2 mortgages to 1, only increased my credit score by 1 point.I will NEVER under how credit scores work, but I know they affect chances of getting a mortgage and interest rates you can get.

Because most of the closing costs are fixed, the percentage can be extremely high on lower priced properties.

any fee's you pay to foreclose are also added to your note.. and if someone took it sub too those folks generally wont have the ability to cure.. but maybe.. a lot of sub too in lower value assets is get in title for very little money then rip the rents.. knowing they will have one to two years in the foreclosure process so they get 800 a month for a few years.. do not pay anything on the property and walk away..

However lower caps like 5% don’t cash flow, so they are out for me.

. $50K is the minimum criteria on the lower side with most lenders.

I really like / prefer the 14 unit property due to its lower asking price but CAN NOT afford to hemorrhage money monthly like it currently is.

There are 4-plexes in the south end that are well within that price range,  but you will be dealing with a lower socio-economic bracket of tenants that you are probably used to with your townhouse.