I worked at Apple, Microsoft, and Intel (starting in the late 90's) and I was super fortunate along the way (due more to lucky timing than outright talent).I just want to understand the business as much as possible so that I don't make easily avoidable mistakes. 

Beware, however - you may be comparing your 'market' with other places that have been fixed up and are fresh on the market, so be sure you are going apples to apples.One of my vendors has a saying: "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered."

I was not able to find any duplexes that sold in the last 6 months in that area to be able to do an apples to apples comparison. 

Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

Once a bad apple tenant is in then there isn't much you can do about it. 

I've found its just an easy way to qualify a property on an apples to apples comparison.

The most difficult task related to placing a CAP rate on a property is you need the TRUE CAP RATE so you can compare apples to apples.

Are flips where it's at, or are ppl stocking up on rentals due to the Apple building and Tesla building going up?

I then realized that I was able to compare apples to apples when I was seeing which houses were in the same zip codes, same sqft and similar Beds/Baths, and noticed when a property was a possible  "good deal" based on the price per sqft.

Finding 3-4 companies per trade and evaluating proposals to make sure they have our project specs and are apples to apples comparisons.