Once you identify a lot look at the demographics to see if the neighborhood is mostly comprised of families of 3 to 4 versus if the area is mostly comprised of individuals, living alone, that makes the biggest difference.

I explain it as rocks falling in small ponds that barely ripple versus warm belt states where giant boulders drop in the lake causing massive ripples (growth) throughout the states.

I've come across discussions on cash buying versus financing, and Airbnb versus long-term rentals.

How much is the rent versus old rent ?

For pros/cons of booking.com I would say the following...Pros:-if you use guesty you can sync your airbnb info into your booking.com listing info to ease the set up process-there are more options to check off in the amenities portion of the listing set up, so you can really display the uniqueness of your property-I would wager 90% of self-managing str hosts only list on up to VRBO/Airbnb, which means there are not nearly as many options for people to choose between, which means more exposure for your listing-rumor has it that booking.com just invested a large sum of money into building out their services to provide more vacation home listings rather than hotels.

The reality is that if you analyze an Investment for it's Long Term ROI, you won't be using simple formulas based on Cash Flow Now.Those that are arguing Cash Flow versus Appreciation need to add at LEAST the Mortgage Balance Reduction and the Tax Savings.The problem is Education, therefore, there will always be a discussion which pits Cash Flow versus Appreciation when the real conversation should be:Given the over all 10 year holding period, what would be the overall return, taken into account:1) Cash Flow2) Appreciation3) Mortgage Balance Reduction and4) Tax Savings5) Repairs and Renovations6) Expense and Revenue increasesetc.A typical Chart in my spreadsheet looks like this:The BIG GREEN Number is an Internal Rate of Return and it shows that, according to my CONSERVATIVE Assumptions that has been built into this spreadsheet, it will give me a 15.34% IRR over 10 years.What I see from other postings is no mention of the overall Return.

I personally view it as a liability protection issue and base the decision on my costs to have the LLC versus the equity contained within.

DFW has become a sort of middle ground of rental yields versus home price appreciation.

Are you saying that, for example, you’d use a different reserve percentage for a 20-year old property versus a 60-year d property?

The difference is, if you live in Chicago you have a great deal of control on how your asset is performing versus investing out of state.