OntarioThis market is not exactly data rich though... does anyone have any experience in that market and know what the current comps look like from a cap rate & price per unit perspective?

It sounds like when you do that you have 7% vs. 10% on a cap rate.

I expect a cap rate of more than 10% for any buy and hold properties.  

Sure, I suppose you could boast that you will be getting a cap rate of 25% in ten years time, vs the 8% you might get with those SAME invested dollars this year, but that's not too different from any compound rate that you will get with interest upon interest, is it?

Most of his coworkers had only bought their own personal residences and a few had never purchased a property at all.One day he was asking around for good info about something (a good tutorial on how to calculate a CAP rate, I think) and one of his coworkers pointed him to a link in Bigger Pockets.  

We figured that if someone were to buy the property at $850,000K then the cash flow would be around $2,500 a month and a cap rate of 4.00%.

The problem with this is that if you get a thorough and complete survey by a capable LOCAL surveyor, you will see a note in the survey that only the parties certified have rights to it and that the survey is only to be used for that particular transaction.

It's very difficult to qualify the value of a $58,000 investment with a cap rate, because small fluctuations in expenses mean large variations in cap rate.

Sometimes the home is a transitional home for their family and they may use an ARM as well but mostly 30 year fixed for the occupant owner.I just did a VA High Balance 5/1 ARM at 2.875% (prin & Interest) for a veteran and that was a great loan 100% financing at an ultra low payment and VA ARM's unlike other ARM's have a max cap of 1% interest rate adjustment per year in years 6-30 with a cap of 5% above the start (max 7.875% - would take 5 years to get up to this amount in worst case scenario).

I have approached some larger banks, but acquiring a U.S  credit score will take some time and nothing would help more than to prove to a bank a capability of paying back a loan.