My cleaners take the trash that they collect at the property, but I would not ask them to sift around in gross garbage bins. 

"Sorry we decided to go another direction" I usually put a test in the Craigslist ad as well just to sift through someone I wouldn't want to work with anyway.

They get to sift through it all and they win a promotion if they get you convicted.

Gotta sift through some dirt to find the gold!

At best this property would break-even.San Fransisco has an (overall) average rent-to-value ratio of about 0.4% -- far below what an investor can get in other markets with stronger economics and lower purchase prices.I think eventually you'd find a piece of property with a positive cash-flow, but the length of time you'd have to spend to sift through enough properties to find that "diamond in the rough" would make the effort questionable.Additionally, the very high land cost under those properties carries a high level of exposure and risk for any investor since the first thing to drop when the housing market turns and cycles down are land values.I hope to meet you one of these days Ben. :-)Continued success!

To quickly sift and compare apples to apples, the minimum a property gross to purchase price ratio needs to be 1.67% in markets I underwrite in.So for a 500K house, gross rent would need to hit at least $5000x1.67%, or $8,333 gross.Generally I see STR expenses to be between 35-40% of gross if you have management in place, cleaning revenue, maintenance, utilities, etc.

So it's probably a good idea to work with an expert you trust until you feel like you can confidently sift & interpret market data. :) Hope that helps!

A couple of my friends who are wholesalers have hired VAs to sift through the millions of numbers and narrow them down to accurate numbers.

@Judy Mueller there are good deals in every market it is about sifting through the enough deals to find the gems amongst all the market value listings.

Let's say you have this list in front of you, and you are about to sift through it.