You want to confirm the person you are talking to is actually a landlord and not one of the tenants friends.Ask if they gave sufficient notice when they vacated, if they had to be reminded of lease rules, if they had extended guests or dog sat for friends etc..

However, my immediate area "suffers" from low cap rates and therefore the properties typically do not meet my search criteria (or are out of my price range). 

The exception of that might be if I want to pick up a vacation house one day for extended family use, and that would be done under our business - but that property wouldn't be expected to do anything more than break even. 

What do you mean by "buy more time"....are you referring to extending the contract pass 30 days?

Since it was a short-term loan, I've had to refinance the loan, but the existing lender offered to extend the loan another couple of years.

Yes, I moved my long-suffering wife and children 4 times in 10 years.

Do I start telling them how to write the dang contract like I've seen it done 1000 other times (an activity my license technically doesn't cover), do I start selling the terms and conditions of the transaction and the house so they stop with this back and forth BS over $250 (two things that my license REALLY doesn't cover), or do I start extending the rate lock at a cost of 0.125% of loan amount per week until they figure it out via trial and error (I'm licensed to do this, but it sucks)?

Account Closed give me an example of a commercial brokerage that I could go work for, part-time or will at least pay me what I already make with benefits so that I don't have to make my wife and daughter suffer the decrease in quality of life. 

Sometimes you can catch it early with a small leak.Sometimes you can extend the life of a water heater by draining it once a year.

My last one was supposed to be 30 days, but got extended to 40 by the lender.