Wha is usually customary is the highest rate that is not not in violation of usury laws. 10% is the most common I've seen, with the current lower interest rates 8% would fly well IMO.

You can't even have that many pets in one house in my city-- code violation.

I'm thinking each state / counties have different proceduresFor example ( Wisconsin ) : I just showed a property to potential client earlier todayClient/buyer here needs to contact a real estate agent for showings / accessClient/buyer agent fills out our city of Milwaukee standard contract offer :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- including offer prices -- estimated rehab cost -- etcOur county office give owners occupied tenants initial 30 days before opening up property to investors / non owner occupied buyersOwner occupied here is required 5 years of residences buyer / client must fixed any code violation within a certain time frameHere 30 - 45 days to close propertyHere client/buyer must locate their own fundingHere certain areas city of Milwaukee will match rehab (NSP) up to $30kHere equals Milwaukee County

Within the last 12 months, he's thrown loud annoying parties that have driven another tenant to service notice (where said departing tenant stated that annoying tenant is the reason why), been physically intimidating (not touching, just violating personal space) to my property manager to the point of her quitting, violating lease terms by keeping a pet and refusing to get rid of it after being served notice, and breaking into a locked free-standing storage shed to store his own items inside and listen to music with friends without my permission.Hired a lawyer (who I am slowly coming to realize, despite strong online/avvo.com reviews, may be not great since he is not super-great at forewarning/forearming me), and we are in the thick of it, with filings, answers, and summary judgement notices.

If they pay up front, they don't receive any of it back if they leave early as they are violating their contract to me. 2.)

If you're violation codes or zoning, they won't care if you've reported the income or not.I guess with all this "big data" stuff, at some point, all this data will end up in one spot and someone will be able to figure out you're violating zoning regulations based on your tax return.

Contacted my assessor office, they dont have a list, called the building department and coding violation they dont have one either.

If they do fix it, there's not much else you can do regarding that issue.Secondly, there is such thing as a "quit" notice (with no option for curing), but those are only for really egregious violations (i.e. drug dealing, threatening or assaulting other tenants, etc) and if you tried to use one for a minor issue I still think that a judge would see through it and you would not prevail in court.As for your offer and/or your negotiations with the seller, I would operate on the assumption that you'll be keeping this tenant.

It seems like a good way to find deals- but does it violate professional code/etc for real estate agents?

@Curt Smith See also my post on Aug 10 in this BP thread http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/97024-violation-of-sec-rule-for-private-investor I know the statutory law in my state and I'd guess it is similar in many others.