Goal: Increase their income or decrease there expenses so they are living in there means.  

Try to understand the cycle of the local market to see when it would be best for your to have your rentals come up for renewal in an effort to maximize your rent roll and decrease vacancy rates.

As folks get older, their ability to drive decreases.

*Mike is right on-- as your inventory of positive cash-flow properties increases, your risk decreases.

All other areas had a significant decrease, mostly double digit decreases.

Make sure to elevate it when your not working to decrease the swelling.

The key is to generate a return on your investment every month, not just after three years of waiting to sell...While it's certainly possible that your investment property will increase in value by 6% each year, it's also possible that it won't increase at all for the next 5 years, or maybe even decrease in value.But, if you're smart about what/how you buy, it's possible to make much more than 6% per year on whatever actual investment you make.

Is it reasonable to assume that the rate of discount on the note decreases as the note amount increases?

You have to define what we are talking about here.Average that I see is 30% Operating and Expenses,10% property management,10% vacancy.Every building is different and has it's own set of challenges.If someone self manages they can claim lower operating expenses with no management costs.Although the landlord does use up their time and energy which should have a monetary value to it.I tell landlords when I list their property that we have to count a property management fee in the numbers.If not a majority of the buyers will not be self managing and the numbers won't make sense to them.Otherwise we will be looking to sell to a small group who self manages.It depends on the size of the building as well.Many small buildings like a duplex or quad is self managed.Most larger buildings are not but there are a few.If you go over 50 units you can easily get a 5% property management fee but vacancy can generally run higher at 15% and with 30% O and E still puts you at 50%.I do see some buildings running at 60%.It's because the owners are underwater on the loans and have not maintained the property.They keep having to do patchwork repairs to get by and have high tenant turnover with rekey and reconditioning unit expenses which drives O and E above the 30% mark.If you factor rehab and going in and making changes and charging a slightly lower rent you can decrease tenant turnover and cute repairs to bring inline with the 50% total costs.You just have to look at what you can do with the property.The 50% is only a starting point.

You would only be decreasing your commission in the last scenario, not the listing agents commission.