This can be used as strategy to reduce your taxable amounts if done correctly.None of these steps should be carried out in isolation, but knowing them will enable you to have a discussion with a knowledgeable professional as to how it can impact you particular case, and as you have identified, it is a numbers game.

Yes, absolutely ask for a price reduction or what I would do is request a repair credit for the roof to be put in a seprate escrow account, so that you get the cash to affect the repair and the lender doesn't reduce the amount of the loan.

However, note that you will have to reduce the expense by 25% because of the 25% personal use.3) Having properties in an LLC is more of an asset-protection strategy than a tax strategy, as the tax implications will be similar.

There are several ways to mitigate or reduce the impact of such taxation.

Some additional ways some of the investors that I work with have made the offer more appealing: Offer to close at the same title company (cuts down on closing costs), offering a moving truck, reducing the amount of days to do inspections, offering flexible closing date to let them decide how long they need to take to move out, larger earnest money (as mentioned above), and lastly, what I agreed to with one of my clients on a HUD property to be sure she got the bid, lowered my commission by $500 so the net looked higher on the offer. 

I think I know the answer to this, but if I want to reduce my passive income, is paying down the mortgage via extra principal payments reduce my passive taxable income or is it viewed basically as profit?  

I think its more wise to reduce debt before investing.

The costs would reduce your taxable gain on sale.

You do realize if it's already in foreclosure then that reduces the length of your foreclosure?

This will reduce the moisture in the bathroom as long as they turn the fan on when they shower.