Past practice, the rental applications, conversations with your cpa, etc etc.  

In regards to practicing analyzing deals, to build an analysis process I browsed the MLS and scoped out some deals that looked interesting and would analyze them in all aspects, as I would if I were actually going to buy it. 

I have a question as I search for "good deals".I understand that I am looking for deals in which the numbers "make sense" and check as many if not all boxes that you kind folks share on here and I have studied and practiced quite a bit now. 

He spent $5,000 doing that, and suggests a return of $3000/$5000 = 60% annually.This sounds like a great idea- but in practice, I think it would fail miserably.

For value add, its a choose your own adventure to see what improvements you can make at what cost and compare them to the current value to see if paying a premium over asking makes sense with the returns you want.

If the sponsor increases the value of the property by 25%, it can absorb a pretty significant market correction...or the sponsor can just hang on with long-term debt and cash flow the property until market conditions improve for an exit. 

And be ready to scale in oos In a reasonable timeframe Having one or two properties is not practical.

They are now proposing a new buyer that raises rents by improving a property may have to pay up to $4500.00 per tenant....absolutely crazy....of course every tenant and attorney is going to jump all over this and likely other cities will adopt a similar policy.

We're entering year 11 and $270K depreciation has already been takenand the original basis of the 1031 plus improvements might be $50K.The property has always been held and managed by one individualso Is there anyway to bring in a partner into a LLC or other vehiclethat can avoid triggering the capital gains due to the IRS and Utah?

That is a silly practice that I see from time to time and truth be told would you offer money on something that you have no idea what income it's generating?