How to estimate the rent?

[Navya Rajput]

Hi All

I am primarily interested in rental properties (Buy and Hold Investments). While I was looking for SFHs and MFHs in my area and trying to analyze some properties I was getting confused regarding how to estimate the rentals I can earn from the property or specifically from each unit in case of MFHs?

Is this something you can estimate only by visiting the property in person or is there a way which can give a ball park range regarding the rents? What I am doing up till now is estimating the rents by comparing them from the rents asked by large apartment owners from apartment.com and rent.com for comparable units. Is this a logical way to get a rough estimate on the rents?

Using the above method I found that most of the properties would generate a negative or probably zero cash flow (though the returns from them would significantly reduce or even sometimes completely cover my rent but the overall cash flow is -ve or 0). Would such deals be considered good? OR good deals are only the deals that generate some +ve cash flow?

Thank you :)

Regards

Navya