Worried about equity and property value for turnkey purchase

[James Wierzba]

Hi,

I just made an offer on a turnkey rental property (duplex) in a rural town. It is recently renovated, and fully occupied. It will cash flow immediately. My offer is significantly less than the listing price. Read below for why. (I don't expect the offer to be accepted)

My concern:

There are not many comparable properties in the area. Given this, and the fact that I don't know the area that well, I cannot be confident in the value of the property.

I might make great cash flow for a few years. But, if I want to sell the property in 5 years and can't find a buyer, I may have to sell for $20K less than I bought it for. I may actually end up losing money!

How can I acquire confidence in the value of the property? Can I use my lenders appraisal as a source of truth? They would tend to be conservative on the estimate, I would imagine.