Do your homework - not with the risk.

HI  all I live in Ontario so everythign I do is out of state infact out of country..doing your homework is essintial and laning in a spot that the numbers work... once you have a spot gettign a great team on the grond  is essintial..

@Buddy HolmesI'm in the process of finding my depreciation numbers.those are the county assessor numbers:Land Appraisal: $ 15,500Building Appraisal: $ 64,500 Total Appraisal: $ 80,000 Total Assessment: $ 20,000So with simple math I get to 80.6% building value vs. 19.4% land value.Should I carry those percents over to my purchase price?

If something sounds interesting, make a note and do your own due diligence (homework) and validate the information.3.

I would like to make a purchase on my first investment property before the end of the year, I have spent a lot of time reading on biggerpockets, and feel like I have an okay grasp on the math and idea of all of it.

Need to take some kind of class in finance to understand the math, but in the mean time I need someone else to do it for me. : )

Bravo for actually digging in and doing your homework to not get taken in that. 

That approach reeks of "eraser math" - paying more attention to favorable data and less to unfavorable.First and foremost, comps need to be realistic. 

I think generally the days method is more advantageous, but I'd check the math both ways to be sure.

Remember to do the math analysis of and try to look at prospective properties before you make any offers or at least have a clause In the purchase agreement contract that allows you some upfront time (about 10 days to do it) and possibly back out of the deal without  a penalty that won't hurt you too much.