It makes deals more difficult if you're comparing them to what things looked like 1 or 2 years ago.

Just food for thought, I'm a relative newbie compared to many experts here so feel free to agree/disagree strongly.

How does this house compare to the +300K houses?

The owner wants $300k for it and the sale of remodeled comparables in last 4 months is around $500K.

If you see them as great, average, or crappy deals compared to your experience let me know...but share what a typical deal looks like.

We will underwrite the building using solid/conservative information on gross income (what are market rates, can we raise rents over 2-3 years, what reno needed to get to market, how do are units stack up compared to others, what is market vacancy, etc.), what we can achieve not what the current owner has done.   

I said I thought the property was a decent deal (asking 96k when comparable houses sell for 130-140k).

I've checked redfin/zillow the usual and it looks like the real estate is pretty cheap out there comparing to rental ( 30k house going for 650m). 

Generally, the biggest challenge is a lack of quality comparable properties.

Note that this was before Al Gore invented the internet (LOL) so info availability was in the dark ages compared to now.