It's definitely important to evaluate appreciation vs cashflow.Do you mind sharing where your Arkansas deal was and how you found them?

I never go off of a flat percentage on anything, I analyze the costs to get to a specific return I target and analyze the risk that is involved. 70% may be an initial metric to see if it is even worth pursuing, but every deal should be evaluated independently based on costs, time and risk involved.

I do not know enough or want to look into it.I will take this another direction though - should they actually rebuild those homes or should they re-evaluate the area and implement a plan to properly zone and master plan those areas to avoid this in the future.

On the other hand, lots of the sellers are institutional investors or local RE professionals, which inevitably shifts even more risks to newbie buyers.This is a 1-star review for newbie buyers; 3-star review for seasoned buyers who know what to watch out for when evaluating deals; 5-star review for sellers, especially those who want to evade scrutinization from shrewd local brokers and failure-to-disclose-property-defects lawsuits.Well, since I rate Roofstock 5 stars for sellers, why don’t I just list it for sale on Roofstock?

It’s understandable why so many investors focus on cash flow when evaluating real estate.

You can evaluate the additional cost and payback time as if you were paying for heat to get a handle on it but the jump to most efficient is probably not worth it in your situation.

Just like when evaluating a potential purchase you should be performing the same due diligence with rents.

Other than just going in and looking at what's on Redfin.com and using the tools on here to evaluate a deal, is there anything else I can do on here?

Franky,Feel free to send me an email I can help with evaluating some options.   

How do they evaluate deals?