Basing a buying decision on a comparison to the tax appraised value sounds very stupid to me.

@ William: rescind does pull mls data for comparison, but not sales price.

I have no problem sharing that info for comparison, etc.

Not an Apples to Apples comparison, but gutters, whatever the price, buys you piece of mind if you plan to hold onto the property.

Just to give you a few comparison: Equity Trust Co has tiered fee schedule - for $50k to $100k, they charge $360/yr, and increases as your account increases in value; a bit less for <50K.

Thanks T Ferrante...DC is more of a good comparison to San Diego in terms of market dynamics.

Maybe I can find someone currently doing vacation rentals in hawaii for comparison.

I own several SFHs in the lower end of the scale (20k-after-rehab-ish) and while those rent for 550$ on average, some months I may see 20% of that in net income, and most of the time like Jon side, when I get hit with something "unexpected" it may take a big chunk of the gross since while the house is cheap, maintenance costs are high in comparison.

Denver and Colorado towns are just that--small towns in comparison to what we're used to.

In comparison, my taxes are 5% of my gross rents.I thought Texas had a far better rental market than this.Also remember, most of us who invest for cash flow don't "need" the money now.