if you dont mind just dropping a few bits of your own secret sauce, i would appreciate it!

Or like a friend of mine said to his boyfriend "I'm going on this ride/adventure, you coming or should I drop you off at the bus stop ?"

The PMI will drop off once you hit 80% LTV.

You'd be amazed at how many people will drop their price immediately in response to that question. 

It is harder to get people moving in during the winter, so rentals might drop price a little during that time.

At Alliance, they said they would automatically drop the PMI when the equity got to 22%, so it's good to check into that too.Also, I was looking at the conventional loans because of the great interest rates, but I was put off by them because I would have to pay closing costs for the initial loan, then pay closing costs again (albeit somewhat lower) when I refinance after my rehab. 

It has a drop down menu if you want to itemize closing costs.

Prices have been dropping and there are a lot more places on the market than for many years. 

After more digging, I found out that their deductible was extremely high (in my opinion) which also helped drop the premium.

By that point the seller will be desperate to make the deal work and will likely be prepared to drop the price just to get the sale completed.