You can guess based on last year and add or subtract any changes, but that too comes with issues.

James,The purchase price and the Current market price of the properties are not what your Insurance should be based on. 

The business I am interested is not in the market and I strongly believe that if I make the owner an offer he would most likely accept it (based on the previous business he sold)  My plan is to do enough research on the location that I am actually interested in.

Homes without game rooms don't book as well, based on our booking data. 

If you do need a loan consider looking at agricultural based banks such as Agcredit, Farm credit, etc. 

Check out the BP meet-up forums for Cincinnati, Ohio area and you will see "Real Estate on Tap" and can see the information for each meeting hosted and the topic based on the speaker.

But they will give you even more valuable advise where to actually invest in the Houston area based on their years of experience.

Mostly I want to know other downsides to commission based off sqft rather than %.

I am an aspiring investor, and I'm based in a suburb of Houston, TX.

I normally advise people to self manage for the first part of their journey if they can so that they can get a knowledge base to become better investors.At some point if you get to enough units self management is tough and its too costly to hire an employee so the numbers make sense hiring a property manager.To be blunt, you are going down a risky path for an investor.