Our goal is to gain the experience from the first couple of investments and then to grow/multiply the portfolio.

However, I've also read that they can be value by the income they produce through the gross rent multiplier (GRM) method. 

For example, do you look at the Gross Rent Multiplier (GRM)? 

He buys them so that the purchase price is a 2 year multiplier of the rent.

Multiply 45k x.6= 27k in equity for another purchase or down payment.

Multiply 45k x.6= 27k in equity for another purchase or down payment.

Too many things can go wrong when you know what you are doing and in your case you can multiply that 10 times since your experience level is very low.

Take that percentage of the lot to get the sqft of one floor then multiply by the number of floors you are looking to build.

However, on paper you have to depreciate it based on the 27.5 years, so your metric still looks good, but you took money out of your pocket to cover the cost.In my opinion, the only 2 "real" metrics, since are not easily manipulated are: gross rent multiplier at the time of acquisition and cashflow including principal pay down.  

Again, I can't tell you the exact return by year without seeing the underwriting.Equity Multiple 1.94 - take your equity invested and multiply it by 1.94, this is your total return including the cash on cash throughout the deal, the money returned from loan proceeds if there is a refinance and lastly the proceeds received after selling the property in year 5.