So that in mind, the "secret sauce" on how to get discounting from builders is doing it in a Win-Win manner. 

From my experience, these factors are the secret sauce for a long-term growth investor.My family absolutely loves the city, and we are fortunate to call it home.

There is no special magic sauce to what he is doing.

We even have a package of spaghetti and sauce ready to make just in case the guests need a quick, easy meal if they get in late.I guess the bottom line is that you always need to be improving to stay competitive these days.

It's done well enough to keep the lights on with a modest profit, but definitely could do a lot better with more of that experienced property manager's "secret sauce".

Do you have a "secret sauce" to get them to pay something different than what their calculators approve?  

@Heather HallRight now, our secret sauce is a new appraisal form type that only a few AMCs offer and very few lenders will consider or be aware of.

There is no secret sauce to getting/finding properties other than what is already told out there in the real estate market - 50% bootstrapping 50% luck - same as finding a great wholesale deal.

Note: you can get commercial financing for 1-4 unit properties.When you talk to your local planning and zoning department, 2 or more units are considered multi-family.Since this discussion was about zoning, not financing it is more correct to refer to a duplex as multi-family.In my area (the area of the original poster) a conforming duplex would be zoned as multi-family with duplex as permitted use, and could be financed as residential real estate.Hopefully that clears it up.It's sort of like a tomato.

More people are off, but will they be busy and the listing get lost in the sauce of festivities?