Maybe he needs more pain before getting the price down...if so, move on.

Man @Kurt BrumfieldThere is pain with family and friends!

Base part of your analysis on the leases(I'm assuming those have been provided to you,) verify that the leases are essentially market rent- if they are under, you're actually in luck as you'll have future upside, and you can factor the below market rent into your purchase offer- and if they're over, that may signal that some desperate tenants signed leases that they'll break at the first opportunity.

It's kind of a pain to break everything up, and run and keep up with multiple depreciation schedules on each property and don't forget you have to recapture your depreciation when you sell the property at ordinary income rates witch may kick you into a higher bracket on the sell on the back end costing you more and total tax, so you need to consider your exit strategy.  

The city is a pain in the ***, but manageable.

Curious on everyone's thoughts on this and if there are any options or is this is clear signal to RUN AWAY!!!!

So we're supposed to find out details about what's going on in their life circumstance, what their true pain point is for selling their house.

@Phylicia Stephenson - Welcome to the vibrant BP community and as a New Yorker sharing adjoining counties.I see that you are interested in duplex acquisition for house hacking and flips, so, I added two blogs for your review.http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/07/19/how-to-buy-a-duplex/http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/01/07/flipping-houses/On the other hand, I share your pain with regard to the high price of properties and taxes that you encounter in Nassau county.Yes, you will probably have to step out of your comfort zone in Nassau county and look upstate as mentioned.

@Rich Riesmeyer  You could probably use the cement board but it's a pain to install and it's really difficult to make it look good.  

It makes you look foolish and sends the wrong signals to potential buyers who will now offer even less because you have just shown your cards.Let's look at the economics of a house sale;We have a buyer who is going to most likely get maximum leverage from a lender at an unprecedented (and absurd) 3-4% interest rate.An agent looking to make highly taxable earned income (the real loser in this whole scenario).