Paul the putative accuracy of the representation could not have been as accuratly stated with a lesser word.

If the owner holds it personally, then the income and expenses should be on the Sched E of his/her personal return, which he could give without revealing other personal data.In whatever form the owner gives you income and expense info, I would attach that info to your offer to purchase along with a stipulation that the seller warrants the accuracy and truthfulness of of those representations.

Zillow has a page that rates their accuracy state to state, because their "estimates" are based on their access to information.

Hi KPowell,BiggerPockets has a link to some online valuation Sites:http://www.biggerpockets.com/house-value-comps.htmlZillow has a page (very hard to find) that gives their accuracy rating by state and there are some states that do not require the public disclosure of the sale price (Texas is one) so the values are just estimates.

The information cannot be counted on for accuracy.

There are plenty of much more precise methods out there, but you lose the simplicity to gain 5% accuracy.

Your method might be okay to estimate fixed expenses, but 1) those expenses will need to be multiplied by some factor to project future expenses, in which case the accuracy is at the mercy of your factor, and 2) this ignores all variable costs (or, even worse, you assume that past variable costs are a good estimate for future variable costs... if so, I hope that sounds a little off when you actually hear it out loud).As far as I can tell, the main beef people here have with the 50% number is that it seems too easy.

I make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information.

As long as we can locate the bottom of the market with some semblence of accuracy, we'll be able to enjoy some inflation-corrected appreciation and lower costs of borrowing at the present time.The point about insurance on homes in Florida is an outstanding one.

In fact, I question the accuracy of the database, but whatever...if that's what they want, I'll provide it.