But you were smarter than "the crowd" and quickly paid down debt on your LOC to $550K, still had positive cash flow despite having to lower your rents because unlike the guy with a mortgage, you had options, a competitive advantage in the market because you could always just press the pause button by making the interest only payment until the storm passed.

If the listing agent has choked off all competition already, then just throw something at the seller.

The market for small MF properties is very competitive - expect to be competing against lots of cash offers. 

No matter how you look at it, there will always be new ideas, challenges and competition in any industry.  

Similar situation with bnb: led to an automated response stating the homeowner cancelled the stay and then they took a cancellation penalty as well.Airbnb has a newer feature that, if you allow them, they alter your price based on competition so id receive bookings for far less than I originally posted.

In Houston right now the competition is fierce to say the least.  

And to add to what @James Carlson said - a good thing to do is check AirBNB from a competitive standpoint.  

I believe you would have to offer something extremely competitive over other landlords to still attract the best tenants, and you are not really effecting your bottom line if you are stagnating or reducing rents to offset utility cost to the tenant, you are just reducing potential risk of cost. 

If you're in a highly competitive area, look for mailers that stand out from the competition.

In my opinion the competition for housing in Clifton area has become more and more saturated over the past few years.