I am pretty familiar with Baltimore from staying there about half the time for more than 2 years. In the past months, I've talked with other investors and a few realtors and learned more about the city from an investor's view. So, I feel I have a good grasp on neighborhoods in general, but I'm struggling with putting numbers to what I know mentally.
Take the area around Roosevelt Park in zip code 21218, for example. I've visited and spent time in this area many times even before I got into real estate, I know that it fits my goals and I've had realtor contacts tell me the same. It's not the only place I'm considering, but it is one. I've walked it, gotten to know it as many here recommend. But how does this translate to numbers? I know ranges of rents ($1000 - $1500, say, for the properties I've been looking at), had other investors tell me ranges of their insurance rates, maintenance rates, etc. But that's all I have: ranges. Meanwhile, there are properties for sale that don't seem so different from one another that go from $80,000 all the way to $150,000 and higher. The square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, are quite varied making it hard to compare.
My problem is plugging these in to evaluate deals. With such ranges, how do you know what values are most accurate? So far, I've just been using the most conservative estimates for everything. But even tweaking the numbers slightly generates huge differences, and these tweaks might be very reasonable. How do I really zone in on what the numbers should be?
Thank you all.
(P.S. I also want to point out that I'm a beginner. I unfortunately happened to receive an over-the-top PM berating and insulting me for asking so many questions. Is that not what the forums are for? Of course, nobody is under any obligation to answer. :) )
