I'm not sure if he sends them a gift card for the rent or just reduces it.

After close, since the tenant has no signed contract and is effectively month to month, you provide them a contract to sign with the rental amount as you would have charged for the upper suite and one that allows them to move back into the lower suite at a reduced rate a little higher than they were previously paying.

I told a bank to reduce my price by 10k for a porch that collapsed after the fact, or to go to hell.

Without knowing much about the situation, I can only think of a few reasons why an agent wouldn't want to talk about that stuff over the phone: at the top of the list is that they flat-out don't know, for example because they are servicing a bulk listing (distressed property, etc). 

@Jennifer Rysdam Unless a client is doing 100+ deals per year, the 'volume' factor is meaningless because I can't cost-effectively automate any processes to reduce my costs/time.

Sub2 usually has reduced closing costs and requires no down-payment (assuming you negotiate well).

Things will break while someone is there and a poor response to their request can reduce the amount of people wanting to rent there.

"If you reduce the price on the 4plex by X so i can come up with the cash fast, you can bump the rate up to Y and add Z years to the term .. which will net you an additional $XYZ over the course of the loan"  Start low and long with the rate and term, especially if he's not budging on the overall price much!

I also like brick houses and harden them with vinyl plank flooring so that damage is reduced at turnovers.

Low down payments will result in higher mortgage payments and thereby reduce your potential cash flow.For example using your numbers:Income = $3,075 mo.Operating Expenses =$1,122.75 mo.