Right now, things are being artificially held in check with the stop gaps the government is putting in place to keep the bottom from falling out.

With Prop 13, the average CA prop tax is 0.8% but that is factoring in all the long time owners who are paying an artificially lower percent. 

I tend to try and hit at least 8 percent, perhaps that is too low or misguided for others as a CoC return, open to thoughts on that.In any case, assuming half of this would be my HELOC and half my money, would that artificially increase my CoC return assuming I pay the HELOC back via the cash I'm receiving and then perhaps a year or so later refinance and pay it off? 

Just a little sad to see a full month of rent and I'm guessing the $500 inspection cost bring down the 1st year CoC return but as you've pointed out, no point in leaving certain costs out of the formula just so the number looks artificially nicer.

Thanks Elizabeth,Sounds like you have figured out very well what you would like to do and I appreciate the suggestion to be specific about my interests.My internship allows me several months in the area, but I am ultimately looking for opportunities that would allow for an almost completely automated business in the long run, but it seems that there are many means to that end.I am currently fascinated by empty lot flipping, adding value to multifamily houses based on artificial appreciation as a means of making chunks of change to reinvest.

Once in awhile I get requests from programmers trying to develop an app or some program for human intelligence, can't be done, while parts of the analysis can be accomplished much easier with technology we don't have artificial intelligence to make objective and subjective determinations.

I started to think about the impact on comparable analysis and how the inaccurate data might artificially increase values in my neighborhood as the price/ square foot was $20 more.

If that note was started in say 2005 or 2006, I know that the value of the asset was artificially inflated at that time so i am going to look at the value today very, very closely. 

My take is that it really depends on you business model and time frame (flip or buy and hold etc) You can make REAL money even in ARTIFICIAL recoveries.

The best time to get the "savings" is while the area is artificially depressed with LOTS of short sales.