But, historical cap rates don't necessarily illustrate the performance of the assets in a given area.

Less money out of pocket = increased return on your money.A simple example illustrating the concept; 300K senior loan.

I wrote a blog post that attempts to illustrate this, but I don't think I'm allowed to put internal links to it in discussion comments like this on BP. 

. :)That just illustrates to me a fundamental lack of understanding of running a business, actual times involved, actual costs involved. 

If not, I have roundabout numbers to help illustrate the power of a house-hack that you cannot get traditionally.

It only has one post at the moment (which is just a very simple illustration of the concept of options), but my intention is to add content to it as I discover more in my research.I hope you'll follow and participate in my journey.Alan  

.- Seller Financing with offer at $160K, $20K down, 6% interest,  30yr Amortization, 10yr balloon:  Seller Gets $237.8K over 10yrsBy showing the a really solid offer on price PLUS illustrating how much more they can make over time by offering financing, you might be able to open their eyes to the benefits of offering seller financing.Good Luck!

Keep in mind, this 7.37% cap rate property is probably more like a 4 cap in real life but it still illustrates my point. 

But if you're trying to eliminate PMI on a current loan by simply getting a new appraisal and illustrating (via principal pay-down and appreciation) that the equity position has increased, you would need to show 35% equity (65LTV) via that new appraisal. 

MA is in the 3.5% to 7% range.This map illustrates the top states for property appreciation rates year over year.