This will reduce your downpayment amount, as it will reduce your costs.  

It's a way to earn cash, likely large sums if done well, but if you are just planning to flip then that is more of a job than an investment. 

Thus we reduced our asking price & found out recently the owners wont budge. 

But if not, you might leave yourself open to a lawsuit for misrepresenting the investment.From an investment end, if you managed the property and earned that $690/month management fee, you could earn $8,280 per year.  

I could pay cash but that would reduce my leveraging amount in the end.

Long story short, I calculate it myself for each payment that comes in and book it to a Discount Earned account in the accounting software (QB in my case). 

He would still have the loan in his name though, so may not work if he is trying to buy something else and can't take the debt/earning hit.

There are ways to have reduced liability and taxes paid, also.There are exceptions to the rule, you can read more here: https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxp...

At long last....technology is working to reduce those pesky law fees:Artificially Intelligent Lawyer “Ross” Has Been Hired By Its First Official Law FirmUnfortunately most of the pesky legal problems try to navigate areas of the law that have yet to have cases.  

And I can't really sell at the moment because I don't have anywhere else to go.For the record, I don't want a HELOC because that's not guaranteed money if the bank decides to pull/reduce the line.Lastly, is there any truth (benefit) to having a higher mortgage payment on a rental and thus less profit to report, which equates to better tax treatment, or is it that just nonsense?