Newbie Trying understand Buy-and-Hold Investor Criteria...Help!

[Taylor Jacobs]

I work as part of the acquisitions team for a local real estate and development company and I am trying to get a better understanding of the various criteria buy-and-hold investors consider when looking at deals. I know about cap rate and have been told anything above 5.5% cap rate is considered a good deal if you can find one inside Denver, but what other criteria would you all suggest looking at when analyzing a deal? 

[Jeff White]

@Taylor Jacobs If you area looking in the 2-4 unit multi-families, they are only mostly valued on a sales comp approach by the appraiser, so cap rates don't mean anything when they determine value.  All you need to do is get some comps of recently sold multis within a 2-5 mile radius, and you can accurately predict value.    

Also, you can't split out up/down duplexes here in Denver, maybe in the other counties, but not Denver. You can split side-by-side ones though.