Price ratios between distressed and retail sales

[Wes Farmer]

I am reading J Scott's Book on Flipping House's and want to hear some of the forum member's interpretations of Chapter 4 subsection Analyzing Potential Properties "Price ratios between distressed and retail sales". I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly how to find these numbers to calculate a ratio for my area. J mentions a 50% average to look for, but where do I get these numbers to calculate the average? Does this require access to the MLS and if so which search filters should I be using. Its a wonderful book but I'm stuck on the subject of analyzing my potential markets. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Richard Fields]

Go to Zillow, or one of those sites, and find some REOs for sale. Now look at comps that were move in ready that sold and see what the ratio is between the Move in ready and the REOs. That's my read on it anyway. Hope it helps