I am thinking something like 80% of rent, then 75%, 70% decreasing by 5% every rate renewal until we hit the price agreed upon. 

You'll notice if you do a conventional mortgage and pay a much higher sum than the minimum, the amount of interest you're paying each month decreases as well. 

There are many, many houses that will never go up in value and will in fact continue to decrease in value.  

Once that is completed, I may worry about values stabilizing or decreasing. 919 N Pine recently sold for $313/ sq ft so I don't see it happening any time soon!

I've had to decrease the price to 359,000 in an attempt to drum up some more showings.

After one years, the utility provider will adjust based on actual use, so you may see a small increase/decrease each year.Another tip: when tenants don't see the bill or pay it directly, they tend to waste utilities.

I think I will stay away from vacation rentals because of my concern for the economy right now; I believe vacations will be decreased with the likely coming recession.  

And, our results have been excellent: average annual appreciation of 15+%; average annual rent growth of 8+%; during the 2008 financial crash, our clients had zero decrease in rent and zero vacancies; our average tenant stay is over 5 years, and out of a tenant population of over 1,200, we’ve had total 6 evictions in the last 15+ years.Contact me if you have questions, or if you would like a copy of our free investor's roadmap guide.

I hope all of this makes sense. ...i understand we love to hear ourselves talk but i think you're missing my point. actually you may be missing several of them.first and foremost you're not gonna give me $50,000.according to the amortization table, you ARE going to pay off that loan according to schedule or else. whether it comes out of your pocket or your tenant's is immaterial to your outstanding loan balance.the portion of your mortgage payment that is interest is tax deductible. your write offs decrease every month as the principle portion gradually decreases for the life of the loan. people either move or refinance every 7 years so the write offs can reset on a new loan... but how's that going for the folks moving from a %3 loan to a %7+ loan today?

Constrained supply also limits home prices decreasing too much.