I understand Columbus is a highly appreciated area, but do you think it is still worth investing with the small cash on cash return (sometimes 0)  if appreciation is expected?

I was going to go with "High net worth individuals (HNWIs) are those who have at least $1 million in easily convertible assets like cash, stocks, and bonds."

I like to use a mix of the 2024 HUD Fair Market Rents, MLS previously rented units w/ pictures to see what type of tenant expectation aligns with the rent price, AND Rentometer.com to get a bunch of data on a new market.

Rental Comps for the zip code are high.

As a lender - 1) investors that are just starting out normally float towards high leverage/high rates lenders (lower margins and more risk); experienced investors normally go with lenders that can close fast, reliably, and with low fees.

It was high energy which made their pitch feel a little high pressure but I am still SO GLAD I went!   

By no means would these be exact estimates and they should not be solely relied on but with high level information, I think most sponsors would agree that they could provide feedback fairly accurate assessments within +/- 5%. 

However, this probably wouldn’t have worked because with super high franchise fees the perception of potential franchisees would have been that the fee structure was too uncompetitive, and the result would have been that McDonalds would have had slower growth, and their competitors faster growth.Two other positive results of the McDonalds real estate strategy was (1) franchisees are more locked in since McDonalds is also their landlord (2) McDonalds was able to bypass legislation aimed at franchisors being able sell product at high prices to franchisees and (3) McDonalds benefits from the long term appreciation of real estate prices and inflation.

Look for areas with high rental demand, low vacancy rates and potential for appreciation. 

You should feel good that you broke even, but you probably bought too high and estimated way too low.