Is it possible to cover your mortgage taxes and insurance through what the average market amount is in the area?

We've seen our area MLS which covers about 20 counties come down to an average sold to list price ratio of 95.1% and Knox county specifically has come to 96.4 % which is lower by about 2% from this time last year and down from our peak this year of 98.5%. but it's about in line from winter 2022 into spring 2023 which was a time when rates were rapidly rising.

So many unknowns and very difficult to base it on average sq ft pricing.

We only do single family homes, so it's not an apples to apples comparison, but the average national turnover rate is about 40%. 4 of the last 5 years our turnover rate was under 6%, and in the last 10 years we've never had an eviction.

If you have the right location (in town or by the beach) and provide an above average property, you can do well.  

I'd double check any addresses AirDNA for average projected revenue. 

And a little skepticism that the market would continue to grow at 5% or more on average (it's been ~7% average for the 8 years I've lived here)@Dave Foster I filled out the BP spreadsheet here for the sell or rent decision, and similar to you advice, selling and investing the profits in index funds performs only slightly below being a DIY landlord, making that seem an attractive option. 

Real estate investing is forgiving; the average person can still make money even with some big mistakes.

In that area you're looking at average rents in the $1,200 - $1,300/mo range unless this house is extremely nice.

The cap rate around 8.5% (when the local average is 7-9%), I think this price point potentially strengthens the property’s cash flow appeal.All units are rented on 12-month leases, and the seller reported annual expenses around $22,075.