Just wondering what others use so I can benchmark from it

Chris,Congratulations on the new home purchase and your consideration of real estate investing.Consider listening to podcast 78 as a benchmark for entering investment as you are.

Keep tweaking your filters based on your strategic benchmark until you get down to a manageable number of targets.As far as how the agent gets paid, I've seen it done and like just about everything else, it's negotiable. 

I know RealtyTrac is a big one but my assumption is that it is so well known the deals are almost impossible to come by.Is there are certain benchmark you look for in terms of under market value?

If you seem lazy they will drop you like it's hot. setting goals, having benchmarks and a business plan is very important.

I'm trying to benchmark other areas right now, hence my call for someone with experience in this area.

That and benchmarking, to allow identification of the greener options for the green-minded tenants.We have very low turnover in our rentals.

I just want to require of myself 100% effort every day to the best of my ability and see where the dust settles.Of course I run numbers through my head of benchmarks I want to achieve.Setting goals sometimes that can be easily achieved so you do not experience failure of reaching it can really make people sell themselves short.In martial arts we believe in full effort all the time.

I need a way to stop the bleeding and to come in and take over control of the property if certain benchmarks are not met.As the rehabber, you basically want to insure that the money is fully committed to the project.The investor typically gets 50-70% of the net profits so it is certainly more expensive that having a lender.If you were to ask me, you want a private lender who you can pay about 10% to rather than 15% to an HML or splitting profits with a JV.

My 6-unit mfu in Redlands, CA has been running right at 30% expense ratio (expense/gsi) for 19yrs might serve as a benchmark.