Therefore the appraisal form, which is set by the Banks/Lenders are different than commercial property's, which typically place more weight on the income approach.The small residential income property appraisal report, address comparable rental data and breaks things down into items like value per bedrooms, value per gross building area, value per unit and gross rent multiplier, etc.

So you find the ARV, multiply it by 70%, and then subtract your repairs costs and that’s the price you should buy at.

Multiply that by the cost/month in 4 for each line item, sum them up, round up or add margin, and you now have how much you need currently in cash in your capital reserve account.

Sellers of Multi's are more savvy than those of residential properties and will base their pricing on a gross rent multiplier or CAP rate.

and here are the datas about the house and financing: Purchase Info Purchase Price $ 153'000 - First Mortgage $-100'000 - Second Mortgage $-0 = Downpayment $ 53'000 + Buying Costs $ 3'060 + Initial Improvements $0 = Initial Cash Invested $ 56'060 Square Feet 1'458 Cost per Square Foot $ 105 Monthly Rent per Square Foot $ 1.06 Mortgages First Second Loan-To-Cost Ratio 65.36 % 0 % Loan-To-Value Ratio 65.36 % 0 % Loan Amount $ 100'000 $ 0 Loan Type Amortizing Term 30 Years Interest Rate 6.75 % Payment $ 648.60 $ 0.00 Financial Metrics (Year 1) Annual Gross Rent Multiplier 8.3 Operating Expense Ratio 39.5 % Debt Coverage Ratio 1.33 Cap Rate (Purchase Price) 6.7 % Cash on Cash Return 4.5 % Assumptions Appreciation Rate 6.0 % Vacancy Rate 8.0 % Income Inflation Rate 4.0 % Expense Inflation Rate 3.0 % LTV for Refinance 70.0 % Selling Costs $ 10'710 

You figure you're buying power by taking your cash on hand and multiplying by 4 since commercial lenders generally will finance 75%.  

I think the assessors try to keep up with the market values, but they also have the other variable of the multiplier they use to play with to get the amount of money they need to try for without causing an uproar. 

Then multiply by x properties!

I'm wondering what is the "gross rent multiplier"? 

I tend to use a Gross Rent Multiplier, the "2% rule" everybody uses here is a 50 multiplier (50x rent).