And the standards evolve over time.In neighboring Santa Clara County (California), it has been 3% as long as I have been involved (20 years)Here in Santa Cruz County, the standard used to be 1% upon acceptance of the offer and increase the deposit when the first contingency is removed to 3%.I write "used to be", because at some time between 2007 (when I did my last contract with the 1% increased to 3% deposit) and 2012, agents in Santa Cruz adopted the Santa Clara style of full 3% upon contract acceptance.I suspect that your agent calculated 3% = $3000 and change, and he rounded it up to $4000, to show financial strength.That can make a difference.I recall writing an offer in 2012 on a fixer upper that was listed for $540k (worth $800k after $100k repairs).

The other option of course always is to only do a partial exchange and remove some taxable cash from the transaction.  

I'm sure you could remove the heater and cap or remove the plumbing leading to it. 

(underwriter will probably want to see six months of bank statement records showing receipt of rents)- B) Builders Employee Purchase - the 85% LTV restriction is removed or may be exceeded if an employee of a builder, who is not a family emmber, purchases one of the builders new houses or models as a principal residence- C)corporate transfer - when companies buy a house and sell it to any employee who has been renting from the employer's property - D) (applicable to you) Tenant Purchase - 85% LTV restriction may be exceeded if the current tenant purchases the property where the tenant has rented the property for atleast six months immediately predating the sales contract.

2. there is a full basement and room in attic to add forced air and central ac to the home if needed and just remove the whole steam system itself. i have not looked to far into the 1 water heater situation to see how i can separate the piping from unit 1 and 2.i hope someone has ran into this obstacle before and has a solution. thanks in advance 

To me, it has to be removed so the resulting painted finish can be smooth.

During the day the ceiling looks normal, but at night when you turn out the lights it is as if the ceiling has been removed and you are staring at the night sky.

Just last week I ended up replacing an entire 5 ton AC unit which costs over $5K, had a pool issue cost $500 and bee removal $350. 

Those three conversions, along with a 10k contingency accounts for about 65k of that 140k (along with manual labor from me and buddies to remove the stucco). 

We offered a low, but what seemed fair price for the actual property knowing that we would have to remove the old trailer/structure.6/30 – The seller accepted our offer and said that it could be sent to Chase.7/5 – We learned that really our offer wasn’t “real” until after the appraisal and BPO was done, and the property had been on the market for a set amount of time.7/13 – The appraisal and such are finally completed.