Many municipalities have property characteristics listed on their websites.

One characteristic of transient areas is vacancies, and you don't have a vacancy rate in your projections. 

Or is it really just taking a pot-luck gamble - every time?

I am a new learner in the REI world and a future investor but a lot of the numbers/percentages and jargon I see when researching REI are a little intimidating at first glance. I don't have a background in accounting o...

Different parts of the country have different key characteristics and patterns that you can begin to notice. 

For $7500 used price or so it is a gamble as to whether this will go over and catch on here.Much less risk than buying and trying to resell new stuff if it fails.

(Characteristics, location, within 6-12 months MAX) A realtor is usually needed for this as the MLS is usually the mose current+acurate source of true sold values.

If you want to gamble, go to Vegas, at least you'll have fun!

Some states like Texas, Georgia, Hawaii are known as redeemable deeds which means it has both characteristics of Lien and Deed States.

Use zillow to get the comps you need to come up with your own estimate.To me, I have a pretty simplistic approach to estimating.In Zillow, I enter the address of my home and click submit.I then modify the default filters based on my subject property's key characteristics: Bedroom count, square footage and age of home.