Love to compare notes.

He set up a time for me to go take a look at the houses and when we got there his tenants were happy to see him and gave him a hug and talked with him about how things were going as they showed the house.I compare that experience to a different experience I had where we purchased a property that had 2 homes on it where the tenants had no relationship with the owner.

If I compare the rental income to the PITI payment it's actually just positive, but with other expenses (water/sewer/trash and capex, calculated by using 8% of rents), it turns into ~$500 month coming out of my pocket.

I have a stone guy if you want to price compare. 

From a financing perspective, I guess it is more difficult to borrow from banks against self storage facility to increase leverage, as compared to borrowing against residential rental property. 

It comes down to risk tolerance and risk/reward.

Just use comparables like an appraiser would for this type of property.As a beginning wholesaler, you need to focus on discount from fair market value (after repairs). 

So: Net net - Here is where I am with a dilemma between CHOICE 1 (Chandler Blvd/Ahwatukee Hills/Gilbert - PROVEN areas) for an "OK" return for relatively much less risk where I have to cough up 350K for a decent SFHor CHOICE 2 (San Tan/South of Queen Creek/Coolidge etc) for a bit more risk but better reward and incidentally better cash flow - and yes, LOWER price overall for the property around 200-275K and hence more manageable.With the following baseline assumptions:175-350K price rangeNo PoolDesert Landscaping in back and front yardBuilt in last 5 years and reasonably well upgraded to keep CapX low.Close to many (preferably high paying)  employers Around 3-4 Bedrooms, 2-2.5 Baths.

Obviously the convential fannie/freddy loans are the best interest rates and terms but commercial rates aren't terrible....especially when compared to historic rates.

I'm inexperienced compared to you but on my most recent purchase of a SFH, I put down about 6% with owner financing making up about 18% which gave my lender assurance I was personally invested, that there was a lot of room for them to recoup their money and helped me to have a lower DP.