It's best to provide the exact numbers shared by your current insurer so the other company can compare apples to apples.Insurance can be higher on a vacant property because there's nobody to watch it for broken pipes, break-ins, etc.

However, it may be that your particular situation (DTI, credit score, etc) is such that you won’t qualify for as low of a rate as someone with a better financial position than you, so comparing yourself to others isn’t always apples to apples.

@Scott Mac they are removable (magnetic technology) so I'm not really worried about that@Sam Shueh you may be right but replacing insulation is going to be cost prohibitive.

You can see below a comparative sheet I used to bring them to an apple-to-apple comparison when I was looking for something like this 2 years ago.4.

Say you happened to sell all that Apple stock that year. 

So I bought 100 bandit signs, 2 car magnets, and 500 postcards.

This is broad question but here's a couple pieces of advice:1) Put it out there what you're looking for (i.e. facebook/insta/Snapchat/craigslist posts), car magnets, business cards, etc.);2) Secure funding ahead of time (or at least know your funding strategies);3) Have a good home inspector on your team (he/she may be the difference between negative cashflow and positive cashflow);4) set up automatic cragislist email notifications on potential deals (set up key words);5) buy properties in areas that you wouldn't mind your own family living in; 6) Remove emotion when sifting through deals;7) Don't give up

But very nicely and recently done and no notable upgrades needed any time soonSo I know it is all subjective but what additional value would you generally apply to a better school district if comparing apples to apples? 

Also remember that while the property prices may be cheaper in Toledo, lower rent demand will keep rental rates lower as well, so you may not be looking at apples to apples.

I do believe some regulation is healthy for start up competition in the long run, but west coast cities are really dependent on Apple/Google/Facebook/Amazon etc for stability right now.