How to determine a "good deal"

[Victor McGlothurn]

So I'm in the "information gathering" portion of my real estate journey. I have ZERO experience in the field but I realize this is likely the best way to reach my financial goals. From what I've gathered, the 1 (or 2%) rule is the quickest way to determine whether a deal is good or not, so with that in mind I went to a few different real estate sites and ran some properties through the rent calculator  just to get familiar with it but none of them met the criteria for a "good deal". So I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if I had good deals staring me in the face and didn't know it. Also, some of these sites run their own numbers for properties (i.e. property tax, insurance, etc.) am I supposed to plug those numbers into the BP rent calculator? 

So I guess my question is what kind of deal should I look to pull the trigger on? 

[Nina Erlandson]

It depends on the market you want to invest in- in high appreciating markets as CA, you wouldn't be looking for cash flow, because you buy for the long term appreciation. The 1% rule is steered towards cash flow. You can look at the midwest for deals, which will be more favorable from cash flowing standpoint.