How did you find 20 homeowners to sell their homes at a discount in a seller's market? 

Lenders often discount rates and points if you have experience, more skin in the game beyond 10%, and other factors.

I'm going to add tremendously to the value of it through my labor. 

Discount accountant?

Basis I believe would be determined by acquisition cost minus depreciation so there would be a low cost basis for the loan.If they discount the price then eventually you will be the ones who pay the capital gains on it.

I think a lot of the opportunity zone areas in west Cleveland were in already in the “booming/gentrified areas of Ohio city and tremontSouth of there you might have a shot at some appreciationEast - I would just make sure your comfortable with the risk that comes with a potential reward.That being said the east side is getting some tremendous infrastructure - big corporate HQs- opportunity Corridor - University CircleHere’s a link to the map - https://www.ideastream.org/new...I also do have some opinions on tremont/Ohio city being tapped IMO

As a buyer myself I offer to list at a certain price and purchase at a discounted price.

If so buying a place to live is not that practical because of the tremendous transaction costs of real estate.

What some people do in expensive markets though is look for poorly managed/needs complete remodel multi units at a large discount that you renovate with your own workers and you can make a good amount of cash from the negotiation alone and compound that with the power of efficiently renovating it.

The Baltimore market hasn't yet presented the kind of discounts we were hoping to see in a couple of our preferred neighborhoods.