Rather, I think this is more about discretionary investment income that you have the choice whether to just let sit in a savings account earning next to nothing so that you don't miss an opportunity when it presents itself. 

Poor choice of wording on my part.

@Caleb Brown So basically it comes down to how big of a risk I'm willing to take, there is no wise choice. 

Originally posted by @Ryan Johnson:I’m fairly familiar with the Houston duplex market.

You've already been introduced to @Basit Siddiqi who is a good choice to get started with and I can give you CPA names in Scottsdale that do high end investment planning if you want to PM me.

Now seeing as we wanted lakefront, our choices were limited due to our budget.

What kind of leverage you have if any in negotiations will generally depend on the quality of your site for their business type and what alternative choices do they have in the marketplace?

Does the house need cosmetics, or real work (plumbing/electrical/structural) . there are many choices for the cosmetics work, so you can get better pricing.

Your choice is to lose money from this unit, or pay for a better fix. 

Not sure if that is the reason for what you're seeing but then again, Redfin wouldn't be my choice to get that data.