Seller agent offering 4% to the buyer agent to begin with, wow...Anyway, at the end of the day the choice for the buyer agent is to either take $11k on a likely successful closing, or take zero because you can't meet the new bid price and he has to start over again to find you a new deal. 

When it comes to exit strategies, it is definitely a wise choice to choose a property where the LTR rental rate will at least break even for you; however, there are plenty of investors who take the risk of going all-in on the STR exit strategy when all other exits are not projected to be profitable.  

You have two choices, demo the entire lid and add new drywall or get a good drywall crew to skim coat the entire ceiling.

Like with any choice, there are trade offs. 

@Stacy Parkelj, my first choice always for purchasing vacation rentals has always been - places i like to vacation :) !!!

In a market that's quickly becoming saturated differentiation is key.As Phil Knight said in Shoe Dog: "When you add some new thing or service to the lives of strangers, making them happier, or healthier, or safer, or better, and when you do it all crisply and efficiently, smartly, the way everything should be done but so seldom is - you're participating more fully in the whole grand human drama.

I’m thinking it was a smart choice so I can get to closing and repairs soon.I’m wanting opinions as if I should have went straight to getting a mortgage or not vs hard money.

(Obviously that doubles if you do 10% down)  Just be smart about what you buy (meaning don't spend 700k for a 2BR).  

Once I knew my bottom line and what I could get for rent, it was an easy choice for me.  

We have the added difficulty of being 35 miles down lake from town so getting a cleaner to go that far is tough, but we have managed for the last 4 years.Being in the Orlando area, you should have a plethora of choices.