We ended up have two more more conventional offers and the highest did sweeten the deal by saying they would pay $5k over appraisal.

I'd then sweeten the deal to give him a reason to make the jump.

Sweeten the deal to the investor by signing a guaranteed lease to rent the home while you go to school.3.

Offer to work for them for free somehow to sweeten the deal for them.

To sweeten the deal, you could offer a 30-90 day period where you walk the new owner through running the business.If you were in my area and selling 6 SFRs with a proven 140k NOI, you should have no problem selling that at that price. 

Or you could consider paying points up front to sweeten the deal.I wish you all the best with this new venture. 

Listen to your agent and let the buyer know that you simply canNOT pay more than the appraised value.Having said that, what a lot of ppl do is they leave money in reserve out of sight of the seller, so they need to sweeten the deal, they can do so.

(Read: My high end car lease is coming due...)Everyone else: No, not really, but they may sometimes help sweeten the deal a little and very rarely "protect you"...if and only if they have an EQ greater than a salted peanut.

Ideas  :1) give seller a little less upfront  and  maybe sweeten the rate you provide them on the  note ..use the  funds  saved from the down to do  the  rehab 2) leverage  other  properties including your  primary home 3) HELOC on  subject  property  ( if you can locate a  willing heloc lender )4) personal loans 5) leverage  401K accounts 

Either make it a call to action or sweeten the offer (i.e. we'll pay closing costs or something).