OK, well to define "broker" we must backtrack to the legal definition found in FL 475.01 (a) “'Broker' means a person who, for another, and for a compensation or valuable consideration directly or indirectly paid or promised, expressly or impliedly, or with an intent to collect or receive a compensation or valuable consideration therefor," followed by lots of lines describing different types of real estate transactions.

When you sell later on, you will still have to pay the capital gain, but on the new tax basis and you will have already collected your 121 exclusion that would have been lost otherwise.

I am very data oriented, but also very busy in my day job, i feel that spending a few hundred dollars on a property to help develop a good number or show a bad deal early on then being stuck loosing thousands at the end of a deal. 

Does anyone have data that would possibly back up disprove my personal experience with my investors? 

Once you have the data reconciled, you can run financial statements that are useful to lenders, investors, and will help you manage overall business performance.

ALL future business analysis is based off assumptions (including budgets, etc) The data it produces is valid.

There are a lot of options, but I wouldn't know where to begin without knowing all the financial data and location of a specific deal.Also, if the seller is "motivated", why and how do you know they are motivated?

(Zillow Data) Things definitely heating up. 100% appreciation in boston in about 6 years.

I have two paths forward to get my first deal done, and I'd love to tap into the collective wisdom of the BP community for feedback.Option 1: Buy my own small multifamily (2-4 units)However, it's been difficult to find actual "deals" and candidly I haven't put in the effort to go all out, with direct mail, digital ads, out of state owners, etc. mostly just working with brokers and looking at the various online sources. 

While I acknowledge that economic strength is just one facet of a good rental market, it is a major factor and I wanted to share what I've found (the details of my methodology and raw data can be found after the various rankings):Top 10 best economiesProvo-Orem, UTSalt Lake City, UTCharlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SCChicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WIDallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TXKansas City, MO-KSLongview, TXLouisville/Jefferson County, KY-INSan Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CABirmingham-Hoover, ALThere were two main factors to overall economic strength that I looked at – how diverse/broad the economy is and how many economic drivers (i.e. strength) the area has.