I have ignored them for some time, but any deal is a good deal at a certain price - it just means staying conservative on underwriting.What do people in barely stable/declining markets use as underwriting rules of thumb?

Others that haven't needed anything.My suggestion is to figure out the age of your major stuff, and conservatively estimate its useful life. 

Buy conservatively, and make sure you have cash flow. 

The upside is rents can be raised to market rate of $550  and conservatively $500.  

The upside is rents can be raised to market rate of $550 and conservatively $500.

I was conservatively estimating about $1,550/mo for rent, but after talking to my agent and re-checking the comps, we decided to list it for $1,650.It's only been on the market for a week and the average DOM for this particular neighborhood is about 16-20 days, so I'm not exactly worried about it.

We are being very conservative with our estimates of value. 

You can use legal-zoom or something like that, but I am pretty conservative and usually get legal advice.Best of luck.David

I am very conservative and try to follow the 50% pretty closely but even if I stretch a bit the deals just are not there on 15 years. 

Helocs will always be the most conservative appraisal.