You have to decide on your criteria and then run a pro forma analysis on each property to determine if it meets your metrics.Once you do that 50 or 100 times, you'll start to see patterns and will know intuitively if a deal might work for you.BP has a great book on investing in rental properties by Brandon Turner.

This will give potential renters a better idea of the layout and feel of the property, even if they are unable to visit in person.Positive reviews: Encourage your current and past tenants to leave positive reviews of your rental property on Zillow.

Would get with a local engineer to do the layout and an estimate on costs.Your buildable sqft seems really low. 

This would be to get an idea of the layout of the bedrooms/bathrooms and other living spaces.5.  

Those are all computer algorithms that can't take specific details into consideration like paint color, flooring, countertops, room layout, quality of neighbors, and many other factors.Use their numbers as a beginning analysis but then actually look at comparable rentals on the market and compare them to yours.

I will layout some information below and I am all ears to advice from there.Current savings: $12,500 (with the capability to pull funds from an IRA if need be)Currently working with a realtor I've worked with before in my rental market who is also an active investorI have the proper steps completed for a DSCR loan from a company found right here at BP and the process was smooth. 

I would start with something more like a light value-add so you can filter out any bad contractors, get a feel for investing OOS, and lay out a solid network as your foundation.

I have a spreadsheet of how profitable I am going to be with the deal and these are the numbers: 245k purchase price, 20% down (49k) 7.2% interest giving me about $1,330 payments, looking at neighboring rentals with the same layout and interior I can potentially rent it for $2,200 hopefully but I expect the worst. 

We had to correct many of the structural problems on the house and move a couple of things around on the layout.

The renovation will convert a row single family home into 3 family home ( the layout is already there ):- the first flow will be 1 bed, 1 bath- the second floor will be 2b, 1bath- the basement.If those 3 rents, I can easily have $1800-$2000 in gross rent per month.So any creative financial idea I can propose to him?