@James DeRoestit's purely for cash flow for me and if I can get a duplex or quad low enough, I might be able to sell for a small enough appreciative :) value.

It's purely an educational session.

Third, if this is a non-occupied property, you will have a lot of difficulty pulling any future equity out...and I would assume the bank will not perform a cash-out re-fi on a pure investment property...My thoughts...live in the house as your primary for the first year...you can do a HELOC and maximize the amount of equity you can pull out (up to 90%)...then move out and rent it.

Part of the reason I decided to invest in rental real estate wad that I wanted to be able to pick an investment for purely financial reasons and leave the emotional and social influences out of it.

If you plan on occupying one of the units, evaluate the property both as a pure rental (income from all units) and as a partially owner occupied property with income from the remaining units and any applicable owner-occupant reductions in property tax.  

Only a few there, and most of them are $200-$350k and don't make sense as pure rentals.

Consider it more of an audit, but purely to identify fraud.

None of us can predict the future so estimating ARV based on a prediction is purely speculation.

The duplex I live in now I probably would never have considered as a pure "investment" deal based on expected appreciation, price, rents, what investment financing would have cost me, etc.  

The more pure the better.