Jonathan look up the taxes and divide by 12 to get monthly tax costs.Look for the HOA docs to see if there is an assessment and how much.Usually if you find a listing on MLS in that subdivision there will be some houses and it will list association dues monthly or yearly.For instance if taxes are 1,000 and HOA 1,500 then you have about 208.33 a month in costs.If you buy for 4,000 and hold for 2 years you have to get at least 9,000 in 2 years time to break even and even more with closing costs etc.That money will be dead not generating a return for you.You also need to know the soil sample and build ability of the lot.This will be a factor from who buys from you if they want to build a house.On the MLS you can see what developed lots are selling for.Is this lot developed and cleared with pipes sticking out of the ground or does it still have all the trees and uncleared and ungraded in it's natural state??

The down side of a double closing, however, is that you are forced to pay your country tax when you sell, so you need to factor that in.

You may need to use a PM at some point for a variety of reasons (you've purchased more property then you can manage yourself, you've been relocated out of the area, other job/time commitments, you suck at selecting/managing tenants, etc.).Also, future buyers will likely factor in PM costs when they do a proforma computation of the NOI of your property, which directly impacts what they're willing to pay.

But wait, you don't even factor in the likely vacancies he should plan for, for a realistic scenario.

In the reading I have been doing, the factors I have typically come across are: income, occupancy, employment rate, median housing price, rents and age.

Of course, this is not exact since there very well could be some specific factors that are not adjusted.

@Joel Owens makes some good points.Occupancy/vacancy rates are just one of the factors to "back" into a purchase price.

When you factor in the 50% reserve, this is basically saying that you take 50% of the top of the gross rents and save this for maintenance, repairs, and other operating expenses.

No one seems to notice any of these factors....

But if you're planning on holding for awhile that is factored into expenses already.