Chances are he's already seen the deal you're looking at and passed it by, but you never know.  

Question: I want to offer a lesser price, how do I get that market valuation on the lower price, as I believe it more accurately reflects the market?

If you are not familiar with them, you need to be, but the chances that you don't already know about Don Campbell and Patrick Francey are just about nil so enough said.Durham is very much a strong place to invest because positive cash flow is still possible. 

I have a case with a tenant that is trying to negotiate a lower rent due to delayed repairs/inconvenience of doing repairs.

Any chance people wanna move here in the next 20 years?

We market the property at lower price and then discuss a sort of 'cost averaging' for that utility during lease signing.Here's another 'out of the box' idea - depending on your layout and climate - you may consider electric baseboard heat as a different option for heat, coupled with using window units for air....Jim

And @Paul Wright do you have experience in Chicago by any chance?

If you just patch it up, so the condition is comparable to other properties your repair cost will be lower and then you can multiply with .8 or a bit more.Good luck!

On the flip side she could probably get a lower monthly fee but they are motivated to find new tenants to make money on leaseups.

I don't know, just feel like, I am talking myself into it.Best time to buy may be brief period when the cap eventually goes high with market crash/adjustment and eventually the interest rates will need to be lowered to revive economy!