While the exact amount may not be known in advance, a broad total would help with assessing the level of risk a potential investor would like to measure.Since NOI is calculated annually, an investor can simply multiply operating costs by 12 to get an idea of potential expenditures and weigh that figure against income in that same year.

You should have access to the MLS, so you can look up gross volume for the top level agents multiply by the commission rate and then subtract brokerage and other expenses to get a great guesstimate of potential for a top producing agent.I'm not a realtor, but all the top producers in our area have several things in common:1. 

Purchase Price: $102,500.00Purchase Closing Costs: $1,500.00Estimated Repairs: $4,000.00 (not much work needed and I doubled my estimate) Total Project Cost: $108,000.00After Repair Value: $103,000.00Down Payment: $25,625.00Loan Amount: $76,875.00Loan Interest Rate: 5.000%Monthly P&I: $412.68Total Cash Needed By Borrower: $31,125.00Monthly Income: $1,380.00Monthly Expenses: $1,275.93Monthly Cashflow: $104.07Pro Forma Cap Rate: 6.02%NOI: $6,201.00 Total operating expenses: $863.25Mortgage expenses: $412.68Vacancy: $138.00 (10%)Repairs: $138.00 (10%)CapEx: $138.00 (10%)Insurance: $68.00Management: $138.00 (10%)P&I: $412.68Property Taxes: $173.25 Lawn: $70.00Financial InfoIncome-Expense Ratio (2% Rule): 1.28% Total Initial Equity: $26,125.00 Gross Rent Multiplier: 6.19 Debt Coverage Ratio: 1.25

In my calculations RevPar is monthly room income divided by total number of  rooms multiplied by occupancy percent.

.- Multiply the gross rental income by 75% to get the net rental income.- Subtract the PITI from the net rental income to determine if the property has a positive or negative cash flow

If you mishandle the deposit, you'll not only owe the multiplier, but also the tenant's attorney fees.

My question is, as a young person with relatively low income who is using real estate to establish financial security, would you consider markets with no cashflow just to establish equity, or would regular cashflow be the best way to multiply my real estate portfolio?

Monthly income - monthly expenses, take that number and multiply it by 12, take that number and divide it by the cash you've invested to receive your cash on cash return.

In our market the cost to purchase is ~5x to 7x the example, cost to rehab is up to 2.5X per unit but the increased value is at least the same multiplier (I believe we have always been at least $50K value over cost).I suspect if the newby is searching for a BRRRR that has a good chance of being able to extract all of their investment, they may be searching for a long time in many markets.Note we have done quite a few BRRRR and, in our market.

Clamp a few of those on the circuits leading to one "unit" and read them monthly, multiply by billed rate.2.