Rent is not negotiable and contracted as such.I am new to property management but common sense goes a long way.

The next action step for me is to find sales/comparable data for my market for the purpose of getting a better sense of what is selling and for what price retail houses are going for, along with comparables.  

Although I'm in CA, Im open to anywhere in the USA where the numbers make sense.

This makes sense, thanks for the clarification.

Bankruptcies are of various types, but the most common for an individual seem to be a "Chapter 7 No Asset" bankruptcy which relieves the borrower of most types of debts.

a 1% acquisition fee is common, as is an asset management fee. 

If you could get the property for $150k then I think it would make more sense.

Apparently this is very common since its been brought up fairly often.

FYI: Now that the LO comp rule is in effect it's illegal for a lender to get paid more or less depending on your specific interest rate, so there's no reason not to get you the best rate out there among alt-doc loan programs, if that makes sense, meaning you're not exposing yourself to predatory behavior by being upfront about not being rate sensitive, like you would have been had you said that in 2006.

I like that one of the owners Chris is active on BP so they are accountable in that sense.