Does anyone have a metric or advice on how to arrive at a proper number? 

It was at this level in 2006 and came crashing down a few years later.

I have ordered her book that should explain all of that but it has not arrived. 

My $30,000 down made $8800 not a home run, but the place is worth an easy $150k now, that’s an extra $20k (15% in one year, good thing I didn’t listen to people last year saying I couldn’t invest in Vegas, or the next crash is/was coming), if I wasn’t lazy I could refi and get my money back out but houses here are really cheap and I usually only buy 1 a year.

I also am nervous about the Seattle market and what the government is doing there, not to mention the pending crash everyone seem to be thinking will happen within the next 2-3 years.

Going deeper, there is a ton of data backing the fact that the SF real estate market performs quite strong, historically speaking.The 2008 crash was quite abnormal in is scale, and was greater than any other downtown going back to the Great Depression. 

I have worked with her for 6 years and don't necessarily want to burn any bridges, but at the same time want to legally arrive at the lowest tax bill possible. 

Someone else arrived. 

@Kin LeungMan...this questions comes up all the time on BP - I want to get into MF but maybe I'll wait till the market corrects or crashes. 

If not for me, I'm sure someone else will eventually arrive on this thread via google (which is how I landed here) and will find this as helpful as I have.