I understand best practice for residential is to plan for 50% operating expenses, but what about commercial operating expenses?

Looking to find an agent with experience in buy and hold RE investing

The point of the post was to broadly ask the question about stagnant markets with strong cash flow.  

In RI it's attorneys who handle the escrow/closing, rather than title companies.Usually in Rhode Island, if you're using an agent and the standard RIAR (RI Association of Realtors) purchase and sale forms, you wouldn't engage an attorney until your offer is accepted (which in RI is the same as getting a signed P&S back), unless you or the seller is putting something out of the ordinary in the P&S (usually in the additional provisions on the last page but there are a few other places extra language can be added).In that case you might want to bring in your attorney to double check the language you or (especially) the seller are proposing, just so you understand what you'd be committing to.I'm not sure what your connection is to Rhode Island but since your profile says you're in Maryland there are probably some differences between the two states when it comes to real estate.

What they don't know is that the house has been deemed unsafe by the city and we've talked to the building commissioner to hault tearing down the property.Our understanding is that the bank will have to send out a broker to appraise the house in order to move forward.Is there any way that we can assist the process and for lack of a better word, "convince" Chase Bank that they should accept our offer or at least negotiate with us?

And I have no doubt she'll say "Its okay Dad, I understand why you missed my birthday party...

@Caleb Heimsoth & @Amy Beth I definitely understand the benefits of a PM.

Wife is worried the cheaper building with so many cheaper units will always be a hinderance with so much supply.Just trying to understand the pros and cons when investing.

So if I understand the bank would not lend you money because the appraisal came back lower than the asking price?

We understand a lot more about all of this now and are both establishing our own strategies to ramp up.