He bought when it was low, experienced a bunch of appreciation and rental growth, and is now going to sell for a fat profit and move onto bigger projects@Jason OngThe tree comment was probably because the area with the most trees in town is East Sacramento, which is one of the pricier areas in the city.

It was a big fat waste of time and effort.

Is it always the case that someone in my position would have no leverage to request a reduction in price?

They asked if they can do 351 only...I asked them, if I get 351 reclassified, can I use the letter of determination for 351 to apply for an insurance reduction for the entire property which is "351-355"? 

For instance, there is a fairly large Federal government presence in Everett with the Naval Station and it's staffing and budget is disconnected from the fate of the tech giants in Seattle.However, I agree with your analysis that if Boeing continues on its path of engineering labor reductions in Everett, A & B rents will suffer.

Or will it be a big fat "it depends?"

She gets to explore the city while I work in the daytime.Now, regarding some of the other comments...It's not hard to generate 20%+ return on buy-and-hold real estate if you consider the following:- Cash Flow- Appreciation (if you don't know what the appreciation rate is in an area, just use inflation rate)- Mortgage Reduction (your tenants are paying off your loan and building your equity for you)- Taxes (interest & Depreciation)Actually, if you only put down 3.5% or 5%, it's not hard to get annual returns of 150%.Also, if you want to automatically track your net worth, I like Mint.com.

When you buy cash and leave your money in the property, your invested money gets old, wrinkled, fat, and extremely lazy.

The effect of this is that for buy and hold, it is harder to find properties that provide a return that is better than more passive returns.Note interest rates are less critical for short holds such as for a flip, but flippers have to be cognizant of potential RE price reduction  We only do buy and hold.  

If your strengths compliment someone elses then you should partner at whatever split you feel comfortable with until you can build a track record.. just remember pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered