you need to compare apples to apples.. unless your looking at turn key inventory and then homes on the MLS  ( not Zillow or truila)  that is what you need to look at.most turn key homes by reputable companies will be extensively rehabbed .. were MLS homes from a homeowner that has lived there 20 years may have 20 year old mechanicals roof etc..

It is a great city for Investors as typically the buy-in is more conducive than other larger cities.Here in Pittsburgh new investments by Google, Apple, Facebook and Autodesk is a true testament to the growing infrastructure here.

My background is mostly focused on day trading/swing trading big and mis size companies such as amd, apple, Coca cola, CenturyLink, gw pharmaceuticals etc.

If I were doing it, I would grade a property in several areas, 0 to 4...(0 is best, 4 is worst)Assign a factor to each of them based upon the time commitment relative to the category, then multiple each score by the factor, add all the scores together, and now you have an objective number to allow you to compare apples to apples. neighborhood qualityschool qualitylikely tenant qualityage of propertyLikelihood of required maintenance distance from your house/office or the bulk of the other propertiesanything else you can think of

Hi @Jatika Manigault, thank God, or perhaps google and apple, there's no such thing as a "house you can't see" these days. 

To quickly sift and compare apples to apples, the minimum a property gross to purchase price ratio needs to be 1.67% in markets I underwrite in.So for a 500K house, gross rent would need to hit at least $5000x1.67%, or $8,333 gross.Generally I see STR expenses to be between 35-40% of gross if you have management in place, cleaning revenue, maintenance, utilities, etc.

Before you get roasted investing out of area using the 1% rule, please allow me to share my 2 cents to give you an apples to apples comparison:Say $700/mo/unit for a 4plex asking $280k.

The overall mindset to keep, in my opinion, is to make as much as an apples to apples comparasion. 

For example Apple you would search their symbol, AAPL.

I usually throw cards away when I can’t take notes and almost always forget why I saved them.You can get blank cards 10 to a sheet at Staples that come with simple instructions to call up the standard business card templates in MS Word or Apple Pages.