Indeed, here is some research done by Collateral Analytics (that sells data/etc to the mortgage industry) that just came out in July where they find that the "FSBO Discount" is typically greater than what the real estate agent commissions would have been, had the property sold for fair retail price.As a buyer, either can be viable.

I am a recent college graduate, I am extremely passionate about real estate investing as a business - this is not a hobby for me - My background is in finance, I am a very analytical person, I truly enjoy analyzing deals, crunching numbers and most importantly finding creative ways to maximize profit and minimize expenses.

Day 2:What I did: 1) I create an analytics spreadsheet to make offering on properties a little easierCost: $0Total Cost: $0Education: I am now through podcast 43 on the BP podcast and I also have reached out to some investors in my area for information-Nelson

Perhaps I should get BP Pro to analyze the deal with the analytical tools on here.

I've been interested in getting into multi-family rental investments for some time and have been reading and getting educated on the analytics.

My company provides investors every service they need to invest in the Tulsa market, we provide discovery of opportunity, analytics of the deals, brokerage services, and contracting to get work done as well as management/accounting after the fact.If this is something you want to discuss in detail PM me here and I will get back to you as soon as I see it. 

The vacancy factor is important to note on the effect it has for a particular month, but from a long-term analytical standpoint, VACANCY shouldn't necessarily affect your decision of 1 vs multiple properties (given the properties are in the same location and the vacancy rate is the same for each). 

I'm the analytical finance side while my wife has an incredible eye for harmony and balance.  

We do analytics on lead capture, and it has shown that their network generates virtually no leads, making them not worth the price they are charging.

All of these products have their own proprietary algorithms (including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) to come up with an expected ADR or Occupancy rate (and many other valuable data points) so there is real data analytics going on with these products.