Call competitors or doing site visits will give you more insight into saturation levels If they all have waitlists, you'll put more wirght on that fact than on how your numbers compare to national averages. 

More renters.Bottom line: Any one who uses the phrase, "You can just buy a house for what you pay in rent" clearly hasn't thought thru all the ways that phrase is insufficient, so when I hear that I just nod politely and cross them off my list of potential competitors.

Those are direct competitors and their calendars sit at about 65% occupancy.

Paid the asking price because it was low and to hopefully beat out competitors.

Terms usually depend on the deal but most of our borrowers bring a lot less cash to closing than competitors if freeing up working capital is your main objective.

@Sean McClureHi Sean,Here are my thoughts on this.If it were mine (excluding trying to pump the appraisal from the question because it's an owner/operator SFH vs flipping it).Overall, I would be concerned with not over-improving it for the amount of rent it will attract.First I would figure out the minimum that needs to be done to attract the average rent for the area (base on what the competitor rentals have that are getting that rent), and what (if any) modernization's (wall color, 3-prong outlets, Carbon Monoxide detectors, etc...) need to be done (to make it safe, and desirable to an average tenant in the area), then decide what "Hardening" needs to be done to it, to make turns, maintenance and ownership less costly.Good Luck! 

Today Web traffic is way more important than vehicle traffic...though your location relative to the other competitors and the densest populated parts of town is an important factor.   

- And have you found you can charge more for a renovated interior, or does the price you are able to charge not really differ at all from competitors in your area, BECAUSE you chose to be in a lower class area?

I may be the only Ironman competitor in the history of the sport to do this.

No matter what market you’re in, there are guaranteed to be other competitors broadcasting their talents, taking up ad space, growing exposure, and building business relationships with clients that could and should rightfully be yours to secure.