There are multiple factors that go into determining rents and if there is limited data the rents will be off. 

Data over the last century shoes REITs have a correlation to stock market returns. 

I closed anyways as it was a purchase but if was a refinance I would of cancelled and used another lender, the appraisal you can typically transfer FYI.

Where I am, the legal newspapers publish probate data daily and it's online which makes it very easy.

You can transfer the rental to an LLC after the purchase, though this may trigger the due-on-sale clause, so check with your lender.This post does not create a CPA-Client relationship.

If the owner lives in town, you could even go knock on their door, I find this to be extremely successful when you are going after foreclosed properties.As to your 1st post, you might want to look at city data for growing markets, It looks like Rochester lost population last year, vs if you look at sunbelt cities like, Houston, DFW, Austin, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, these cities saw at a minimum 1% population increase.

Consider different selling options (traditional sale, rental, or auction) based on market conditions.Tools that may help: QuickBooks for budgeting and expense tracking.Zillow or Redfin for real-time market data Asana or Trello to track the progress 

I'm trying to find something from them or anyone showing occupancy rates historically as I love seeing some of that data - as both a builder of str cabins in eastern tennessee and someone holding str cabins in eastern tennessee. :-) Any chance you have a link or two to the report? 

@Daniel Windingstad,I believe @Taz Zettergren mentioned Alabama, and I wanted to chime in since I’m active in multiple markets across the state.I’ll talk specifically about (property) taxes since this data can be easily compared.

I’d love to hear how you approach gathering rental data and any other resources you recommend!