Nicer place = higher rents and lower turnover.

There are good returns to be had but there are areas  that cash flow better and other areas that are more of long term buy and hold plays - basically, lower risk/lower return investment properties.

If it expires, I call them and ask if they would consider a much lower offer than they had it listed for.

I am trying to get comfortable with analyzing deals in Bronx, and I am just guestimating all the numbers.Asking price for this place is $125k and my analysis shows that it will have a negative cash flow.Then I lowered the purchase price to $75k, and I still have $40/mo. cash flow and 1.78% COC ROI so I quickly had to let this go. 

I'm generalizing here, but to get those lower rate mortgages you need to add up all of your debts and make twice that amount in W2 setting. 

Oakland is gentrifying and rent control or liberal politics (like 'em or hate 'em) won't stop that trend...it's just a matter who's making the money.I hear what the out of state crowd is saying, but (caution - incoming anecdotal evidence) my buddy has bought other people's midwest fix and flips with no chance for forced appreciation (in fact the building depreciates over time as housing values remain flat factoring inflation), Lower Cap rate and greater risk than I experienced house hacking. 

The city zoning has the home listed as single family, but the previous owner added in a second meter for the basement it looks like.It would be advantageous for me to have it appraised and classified as single family since it will me a lower down payment, but the lender has indicated he thinks the appraiser will say it’s multi since the basement has a kitchen.I’m unfamiliar with the specifics on this situation.

It's been 2 weeks and the kind of applications we are getting are far from ideal...bad credit scores, delinquencies, hard to figure out how much do they make (meaning self employed in some cases) are some of the issues that made me reject 4 applications so far.My property manager (who helped me buy the house) has posted the ad on all relevant websites, we have priced it at the lower end of the range at which similar homes are listed in the area, but still not happy with the applications.I would be interested to hear what folks, knowledgeable about the Austin market, think...is there more that we can do?

The wholesaler has said they can't give me my deposit back unless they sell the home to someone else because they have $4,000 of their own earnest money that they will lose on the property of it's not sold.So far they've been unable to sell the property and have lowered the price $10,000.Is there anything I can do to try and get my deposit back or at least lodge a complaint for not disclosing the prior sinkhole before I sent in my deposit? 

I get why some sellers are desperate enough to cash in their chips for a discount, but not so much why they would accept lower monthly drip feed than they could arrange for themselves?