Recently the listing agent said it was approved in the online system, although we are still waiting on the approval letter.We have an inspection coming up once the letter comes in.If we find major damage ($5,000+), we may want to reduce our offer to allow for the cost of the repairs.Question: If we void our initial contract, are we going to have go through another 3-4 month process, or is it possible to make a simple call to the bank to see if they will accept a revised offer?

You are the buyer so the lender could care less what you say about a BPO.The BPO was performed by a third party who was paid a fee for doing a non-biased order.This is why with REO's you will have the listing broker in pre-list do a BPO and they will order and third party one as well.In short sales they will order a 3rd party BPO.If FHA short sale they will get an appraisal.Investors always look for minor stuff like carpet and paint.SO ARE regular home buyers who will pay much closer to asking than usually and investor will.So just watch this property but it might go to a regular buyer before it gets even close to being reduced to your price.Better values are in properties needing a lot of work in good areas that turn off regular home buyers.

The normal down payment was 10%, but there may be closing costs you can pay with credit or barter and the tenant security deposits are transferred to you.I sold an 11-unit (2 quads and triplex) this year with 2.5% down SF to an experienced operator to reduce my tax hit. 

(In my experience, tax preparers are not interested in receipts if they can avoid them...they prefer numbers to put on the forms.)A tax strategist advises ways in which you can reduce your tax burden. 

I may be able to reduce the purchase price slightly, and raise the rent of the smaller unit as that renter wants to move out soon, but the seller already has a list of renters waiting for the unit to become available.

I would also make sure I had a goal to fixing it -- reduce my liability and/or increase rents but not to fix things to perfect because that's the way I like 'em.A structural engineer is overkill depending on the severity. 

However, you can significantly reduce your cost of living employing different strategies. 6 years ago, When I first started, I had a duplex where I rented the 2nd unit and lived on the 1st.

You can also use the rents of the investment property (75% of common rent) as income to help reduce the DTI or obtain a higher loan amount. 

If so, make note of this and reduced the "# of days in service" for that property, then annualize using that lower # of service days.

The bank initial listing was $99k in Aug then reduced to $79K after discovering a foundation issue that cause the structure to slope at one side.