Due diligence and data to run buy and hold analysis

[Ray Ngo]

BiggerPockets community, when I come across a MLS alert email from a RE agent, I have a hard time finding the following numbers, which are absolutely essential to run my cashflow and ROI analysis in a buy and hold scenario. Please let me know what are your quick (but in the ball park) and most accurate (but slow) ways to find these numbers.

Rental income: I learned to trust MLS listing agent "ACTUAL RENT" if this is available on the MLS listing. However, if the property is a SFR or condo (instead of a MFR or residential income properties), the actual rent per unit is not even available. I find myself texting/calling the RE agents to find out, which is annoyingly slow in the process of analyzing if a deal makes sense or not. Another way is Rentometer as I heard from David Greene. This is a subscription though, and I don't mind paying, but would you use Rentometer as a quick (and in the ball park) estimate for rental income?

Property tax: Another mystery to me. Either the information is available on MLS/Realtor.com as an estimate or not available at all. It is calculated by assessed value times mil levy (tax rate). But isn't it also true that assessed value reset to purchase price? If so, how exactly do people calculate annual and monthly tax for a property they come across on MLS/Realtor.com? I heard NETRonline is a good resource, but this is public record that shows past annual taxes and not the actual tax when the property is bought at a different price.

Home insurance: Realtor.com does provide this information, but I do not really understand the rationale behind the estimate. Home insurance is a function of coverage amount, not home price, so what service/calculator/website do you guys use to quickly estimate this number? 

PMI: Realtor.com does provide this number as well. Some use PMI = 0.01*Loan Amount / 12 is the monthly PMI. Is there a universal/rule of thumb to help estimate this? Or maybe an article that explains this in further details would be great.

OPEX: Do you always utilities are paid by tenants for a property you are analyzing? I always assume electricity, gas, water, sewage, trash, snow/lawn care, and wifi to be paid by tenant (except HOA).

OPEX indirect: What are your rule of thumbs for vacancy, prop management, repairs, and Capex? I assume 5%, 10%, 5%, and 5% to be very conservative. Are these numbers subject to change depending on locations/markets? If so, what do these numbers look like for Inland Empire / Pomona, CA (if anyone lives in this are?)

Interest Rate: I'm trying to use conventional loan with 5% down (30 years term) as my goal to purchase my first property. However, interest rate and loan point/ origination fee is based on my income, FICO, and reserve. Should I talk to a lender to figure out my interest rate and then use this number to analyze deals? Or should I just use 5.5% annual interest rate?

THANK YOU BP !!