In a former life I was responsible for creating a billing system for a municipal utility (customer service manager) and what you describe is somewhat common.As an investor, and separately a CRE professional, I've had to confront this issue.The cleanest way to handle this situation is to install a sub meter to measure specific usage e.g. the unit or the common areas.

It's not an exact measure, but it should give you an idea. 

Takeaway: Measure the success rate of your broker precisely.

Then if I sell at any point, the cap gain (or loss considering where the market is going recently) is measured from when I convert it into a rental.Your post almost makes it sound as if you want to borrow money for the sake of borrowing money, ie; to have more interest deductions.

Have you done any kind of split testing to measure the effectiveness of this?

It is easy for us to measure response rate, but I generally don't take great notes on all of the yahoos I screen out.Yeah...We have learned to be VERY selective with who we come out to see for a presentation.

Best to measure it to be sure.

There's a saying in construction, "Measure twice, cut once" good advice.

"whats the process of doing that" and already know the answers. then you can tell if he does also. a license is virtually meaningless as a measure of ability.

As had been stated, I don't think that your opening offer in relation to asking price is really the yardstick you want to be measuring yourself by.