Hello, A buddy of mine needs to get 3 of his rental properties refi/cashout in the Bay Area. He's looking for a lender who will get him 3% to 3.65% no cost only title fees..... 2 of the assets are a 4plex and one is a...

Some relatively simple formulas can make it almost automatic and will suit your needs.If you want to get additional features support, my personal favorite cloud based accounting platform is Xero, but also Quickbooks is extremely popular with lots of customization options.Let me know if you have any other questions.

What is the best way to put pressure on the lien holder to settle low?

I would pass just on that basis but make sure your expenses are realistic before you do that: taxes look high, vacancy looks high, insurance looks a little low, and property management looks high.  

You guys can keep skipping these low equity houses if you'd like.

I think I'd let the professional car rental folks handle that tbh, but it's an idea on the other extreme from my penny-pinching ideas. 

As an extreme example, if the house burns down can you get out of the purchase agreement even if you may have been the cause? 

Here is the deal, we sent out direct mail and got a ton of leads, this is one.House: Duplex 3 bedrooms 1 bathroom downstairs/1 bedroom 1 bathroom upstairs, 2 stall detached garage, owner states not a lot of repairs needed (maybe $2,000 total)Current Rent: $1,225 totalHouse assessed at $96,000Current owner owes $52,000Wholesale offer (from our formula that would make sense for us to buy it wholesale): $53,000 cash - owner declined (too low)If we keep it to rent out do we get a hard or private money loan to purchase for a higher cash offer (we think he would take $70,000) and then take it to the bank after a certain amount of time to get a conventional loan because we will have almost 30% equity in it when we buy it?

Of course tenants can lose their job and unexpected life events happen even we we did our job right.Property management fees vary from low flat fee to 10%.  

Low taxes great place for newbies to start.