My wife and i have been saving to buy a multifamily here in Rochester NY and i would say we are counting down to viewing our 100th house, fired one realtor and hired another, made offers and have been rejected, the most recent which almost got us down as we had the highest offer but the seller went for a cash down payment but we are still searching (may i add we having been searching for over 6 months now).

. :)It'll be worth your time to have them working with a minimal overlays lender that can count departing residence rental income regardless of equity position or prior landlord experience. 

My property manager came up with the idea of marketing higher, then offering $25/month less for a 2-year lease (penalties plus $25/month owed back if they leave early), and these people took it, so far over a year and counting.

Do hard money lenders count as financing to the seller?

Not sure if that counts as discrimination but we had a much smoother ride with the smaller bank. 

I would have a document stating that at move in the payment would then count as the tenants security deposit and they will be refunded that amount granted that the space if left in a decent condition after they move out. 

@Joel Sherlock For the whole system I was getting just over 6% response (that's if you count everyone who atleast got step one but didn't go through all of the steps.). 

Years later, I can't count how many transactions we've done together, but it worked out great for both of us.

Out of curiosity @Suzanne Mark, what will be the count for a small mutifamily (2-4) from 100-200k price range in your market?  

I would look for the option to increase your unit count as fast as possible while avoiding negative cash flow.