I also paid for an app: DealCheck from the Apple Store!

One could always look at price appreciation, but a rising tide lifts all boats (ie, in SF all neighborhoods went up, not just Mission, Bayshore, etc) so that wouldn't be enough.

In this scenario where the seller and the buyer have already been identified and the price worked out would you use an attorney or try to get a fixed price from an agent since at that point all the heavy lifting is done?

A:  Yes...and again, you don't know what they are.5) The analysis is based on Zillow recently sold searches for 2/1 and evaluation of county auditor sales in past 5 years of 2/1's in the neighborhood.A:  Much better, but I hope you didn't use the Zestimate...and I also hope your criteria for sold comps "in the neighborhood" only included properties within 1 mile, in the same city, that are within 10% in sq ftg of the property being analyzed...or it's not "apples to apples".

Unfortunately it looks like the tenant can stay and not pay rent until your brother takes him to court to lift the "automatic stay."

If we were to actually gut and remodel, we'd probably end up breaking even.I think this would work well in a higher end complex (walk to lifts, nicer amenities, etc.), where it is naturally attracting a crowd looking for luxury.

HE did early retirement from Apple and now is traveling, mostly in SE Asia.I think the generic term turnkey investing is a function of what did you get into the property for? 

Thank you @Todd Dexheimer and @Michael Le@Jeff Greenberg it's a very light value add. most of the heavy lifting had already been done. for this deal it's more about getting a solid, low risk income stream for the investor. in short we'll make cosmetic upgrades to units when they turn in order to keep growing rents 2% to 3% average per year.  

Twitter, Uber, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Genetech this and that over pay to attract young people to join them.

The rental is actually up in Apple Valley, CA so I could reach out to the real estate association up there.I am also still interested in hearing others' experiences if anyone has any to offer.