A cap rate is meaningless if you don't understand how it was derived.

I make a much higher return trading options (derivatives on equities) than I do in real estate.

In your area, that may be as simple as paying a small court filing fee.Even if you own the fence 100%, there are locations that will force the other homeowner to pay for 50% of it since they derive benefit from it. 

There's a wide spectrum ranging from paper derivatives to partnership structures.

@Jason Taliaferro @Chris Tryling My derivative of “short term rental” is the rent by room strategy to working professionals like Chris does with the doctors and nurses.

Almost all will begin with some derivative of “it depends on your goals.”That said, while my path will be very different than yours because we begin in different situations, my GOAL is to own real estate (the dirt, not syndication investing) and for it to provide truly passive income.

You own the asset long term and you derive the many benefits associated with that. 

Or a sample figure could be used, derived from a percentage of the Zillow Estimate or similar.One could word it to be a sort of first round offer, or simply put somewhere that it's subject to a serious discussion to determine actual value. 

They will want to see your credit score and your rate will be mostly derived from that. 

That percent is derived from the percentage that the PM expense is of the GOI (PM Percentage = PM cost/GOI).