I'm buying a "2nd home"  that's substantially more money than my primary residence, but I'm confident it'll cashflow as a STR as it's lake property. 2.

We prefer to use our own contract but if it is a listed property and the agents wants to use the standard contract we add an addendum that is about 10 pages which changes the main contract substantially.

Limiting the risk by holding a substantial deposit in escrow until she does in fact vacate is great advice. 

But should I not look at the bigger ones if the price difference is not substantial ?

However, there is substantial amount of competition in the area for multi family properties.

Ordinarily, Sec. 469(g) allows a taxpayer to deduct any suspended passive losses attributable to an activity when substantially all of the activity is sold in a fully taxable transaction.

The savings are immediate and substantial:  I was paying VRBO 3 percent per CC transaction; I am now paying around 1.6 percent. 

So while you "always" have the potential of a "substantially lower than asking price" offer being seen as unreasonably low in the "eyes of the seller". 

My favorite books:Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon HillHow to win friends and influence people in the Digital Age by Dale CarnegieRich Dad Poor Dad by Robert KiyosakiThe Introvert Entrepreneur by Beth L.

Materials and labor correlate to building size, but those fixed costs influence builds to be larger.