Contractors front the money for work, labor, and supply costs and expect a profit for the service and safety they ensure.That said, there are absolutely contractors out there that will take advantage of customers that do not understand what they want or how much it generally costs.

It costs $0.25 per transaction, so essentially $0.50 for each payment.  

*Our LLC signed the lease, which he would be responsible for as well (FYI, the LLC only has 1 property in it, which is currently 40k under water, so essentially has no assets).Looking back on it, I easily could and should've done this deal on my own.  

Can you talk to the code enforcer, explain the tenant problems, and essentially ASK for him to post your property for no occupancy for failure to comply with the requirement for the common area meter?  

The deals we have closed required very little negotiation, essentially we just made offers right off the bat that were satisfactory in the owners minds.

And even though we start with this step technically no matter what project you're working on, safety and security should be the first priority.

Its possible to buy with financing, but you essentially need the lender there with you with the money in hand.  

If you make the minimum monthly payment on time every month, and pay the entire amount off before the end of the promotional period, you will pay zero interest - essentially a free loan.

Essentially I would like to build a stream of $20k/month.

So you're saying the proforma is just essentially a waste of time and that instead of arguing with the seller over numbers, I should just plug in my own best guess numbers?