I’ll close 1,000 units this year and only put up a small “token” hard deposit on a couple of deals and only because they were off-market and I felt it was important to show the seller that we weren’t just fishing.  

Family member has 2 Airbnb's, we had recently bought this bank foreclosure for $20,000 as a fishing cabin for hubs.

An investor with 14 SFR isn't excited about another SFH... go fishing for something bigger (local broker) or keep crushing with the SFH on your own. 

So my friends, how does the little fish win in a market like this?

You don't know what you don't know and because you're a strong professional its probably driving you nuts.  

There are many fishes in the sea, this one just happen to not be the one at the moment.

I had thought since we were so far out it’d be a small penalty if any, but now I’m learning years 1 and 6, 2 and 7, 3 and 8, 4 and 9 are considered equal for prepayment % (5,4,3,2,1 percentage respectively), which is nuts to me but I’m sure is nothing shocking to you folks who do this daily.Anyone ever hear of CURRENT lender waiving this penalty if the new loan is with them also? 

I would spend the $5500 to replace the sewer line hoping that eliminates the problem (after scoping/ hydrostatic testing) but it's in by budget.Am I nuts? 

If your general contractor is annoyed by this then I say move on, there are plenty of fish in the sea.1.

I can see collective water in a multi-plex, but paying for tenants electricity is just nuts, especially in TX, where they'll run the A/C 24/7 because they aren't paying for it.