To maintain your current standard of living, your rental income must increase faster than inflation.

Their comparable sales are almost always significantly inflated, and they lack the expertise to accurately budget for renovations.

Everything revolves around consistently receiving rent and having the ability to increase rents faster than inflation.

I will be paying ALL closing costs, can the seller just give me an incentive for that $54,000 or is that in some way fraud for inflating a price? 

And in 3-5 years, these “base hits” look like home runs due to inflation and your tenants paying down the mortgages.

Definitely inflated ARVs and I have no clue where they get their repair costs from.

But, property in certain specific parts of our country have shown price declines (in real terms, accounting for inflation) over the last 50 years. 

So even popular rent estimate tools seem a little inflated unless you're outpeforming the competition with what youre offering.

For example, a buyer may be willing to purchase a property needing repairs, take on existing tenants, or be willing to cover some or all the closing fees.Of course, selling in a hot market means you may pay inflated prices on another property.

Then the land flipper will get to work marketing the property and selling it on to the next buyer at an inflated, more market-related, price.