They could be awesome and not have much to work with in the way of offers- usually that's because you are priced too high, but did the advise you of the danger of a low appraisal and try to counter your offers to protect your interests?

I'm thinking engineer because they will have the best idea as to what is going on with the house and how to mitigate it without needing to sell me anything other than their time.

Two ways to mitigate the short timeframe, 1.

@Blake Pieroni It's risk mitigation.

In my experience, charging a non-refundable pet damage fee (as permitted by your local real estate legislation), pet rent, and verifying background, income, and previous landlord references is a good way to mitigate the risk of a bad cat.

@Sathiya DevaThe unfortunate thing is that it appears you are no longer eligible for section 121 exclusion.The good thing is that the gains are likely long-term capital gains which is eligible for preferential tax treatment.Some ways to mitigate the taxes are doing a 1031 exchange or Qualified Opportunity Fund.

- Similarly, are there ways to mitigate the risk of another investor trying to arbitrage the opportunity – e.g., re-write the bylaws to effectively eliminate the ability of other owners to rent out their property?

But those opportunities are few and far between.Seattle does require you to allow roommates or family members to move in, which is extremely dangerous.

Deviations should be rare, justifiable, and risk mitigated through other means (e.g. higher deposit)

For these landlords, mortgage, maintenance and tax bills have been piling up, putting them in danger of losing their property or being forced to sell to wealthier investors (hunting for distressed deals).