Buy&hold market in Bucks County / Suburbs North of Philly

[Joshua McGowan]

Bigger Pockets investors in the greater Philadelphia area,

First two paragraphs are background, so skip them if you're the cut-to-the-chase type.

I've been listening to the podcasts and saving up cash for a down payment for a while now, and recently I've been scoping out the MLS websites for my first rental property (single family or small multi-family). Looking for something within an hour (preferably a half hour) of my home in 18966, so the suburbs north of Philadelphia, PA. Also hoping to avoid the need for any MAJOR renovations, as I'd like to get my feet wet with a simpler property before throwing a fixer upper property on top of my full-time engineering job.

I've been developing my spreadsheet to the point where I can plug in my expected rental income, reno cost, operating expenses, and mortgage rate, and it spits out the purchase price at which I'd be able to hit my desired ROI of 10%. For the properties that I've analyzed, this calculated price point has been coming in between 35%-60% of the listing price, which leads me to ask a few questions of you more experienced investors:

1)  Is 50-60% of list price a typical or reasonable offer?  I know that it's just business and nothing personal, and also that list price doesn't necessarily correspond with value, but I still don't want to waste my time (and my realtor's) if throwing out a bunch of 50-60% offers is sure to receive a bunch of rejections due to my expectations being so wildly different from the seller's.

2) Is 10% too aggressive of a target ROI for today's market in this area? 14% is roughly the number that I hear most folks on the podcasts shooting for; is this number only realistic in...
a)  cheaper markets like the midwest?
b)  the market of yesteryear when investors were getting properties at a discount after the market crash?
c)  run-down properties that scare most people off but can show promise after some serious renovation? 
... or do I just need to be persistent and wait for a 10-15% deal?  What ROI do you set as your minimum in this market?

Thanks in advance for any input you can offer.  Trying to get a feel for my market, so I look forward to hearing your experiences!

[Jonathan Dempsey]

@Joshua McGowan Sounds like you already have the hardest part of real estate tackled in that you've done your research and saved up a down payment.  50-60% is in my opinion not going to elicit much response relative to your time.  Of course each property is different and has its own story, so maybe you could pull of 10-20% below list price.  

I do find many of the bigger pockets podcasts to be outdated in terms of market expectations.  Philosophically there is so much to learn from the podcasts, but it is definitely necessary to try to compare apples to apples.  

What areas have you been checking out in particular?