My question is, if I make a purchase using myself as a broker, is it possible to receive a credit from the seller when acting as my own agent instead of receiving a brokerage fee?

The more positive and proactive responsibility that people have in anything, the happier they will be and their quality will improve as well. 

However, this is a situation when they deny that their partner has moved in but it appears like they live in the apartment building.This may happen because of bad credit or because of criminal convictions that they do not want to disclose.

I am a finance professional currently, so I bring that mindset to the table, as well as a good eye, a passion for property improvement, and some funds.  

Yes, in truth the costs are more than 55% of gross but there is room for improvement that current management is not addressing.

Had somebody throughly checked this guys income credit and previous references he probably wouldn't be your tenant today. 3rd.

More importantly with appreciation I'm thinking it would take another 10 years before the neighborhood really started to improve.

Just put them on bad credit.

Diy improvements over the next year can put you in a great situation to refinance the equity in order to come up with the 20% down payment for the rental property.

I have less than perfect credit and pretty much no cash to put into the deal with a hard money/private lender/crowd funding.