I'm out driving for dollars, networking, and studying market trends.

The trends our obviously in our favor (retirement, tax free income etc).

He had one that was 2 blocks from my daughters house in one of the hottest markets we have had in a while.

He had one that was 2 blocks from my daughters house in one of the hottest markets we have had in a while.

This is not just a question of looking at comparable sold homes, it includes evaluating current pending and active homes  so you can catch trends as they are happening, and also understanding seasonal market trends so that you don't price on the higher side in June/July when you may be at the tail end of a rising spring market, or under-price in February because you're looking at comps that sold in December and January, etc.And it includes understanding the home features that are going to add or detract value compared to the comps, i.e. great house but unusually small master bedroom/or backs to busy street/or missing that one extra rec room or flex space that will keep 3 or 4 people from piling up on each other. 

Does anyone know (or can you recommend) the best way (for free) to track the latest trend of Hedge Fund (Institutional Investor) real estate purchases by state, city, etc.,  Heat map with percentages? 

Cap rates are compressing despite rates rising Treasury rates and could continue that trend.

Another thing you want to be careful with is a recent trend prices for multi families have been going up in not so great areas but rent has not gone up and the headaches are still there.

This seems to be the trend with STRs in most major metro areas across the country.Everything in New Orleans is in a flood zone.

To the extent that the online estimators are "off", they are consistently... so you can use all of them over time and average their results to at least track trend and approximate value.