I would like to assess what type of return rates all of you who have experience in the rental market require for a deal to be good.

I recommend connecting with local investors to assess their experience. 

@James Park Thanks for your thoughts, and yes I mostly agree with your assessment.  

My assessment is that there is not any new land in old west Lawrence and pricess there are appreciating faster than anywhere else in Lawrence.  

Your MBA should prove a useful tool for you to properly assess market factors.

Unpaid property taxes, attachments, assessments, judgments, IRS liens, watch out for all of these.

Looks like their variable rates just went up a bit since I last checked:Primary residence: https://www.americafirst.com/loans/home-equity-loa...Investment properties: https://www.americafirst.com/loans/home-equity-loa...If you use the county's assessed value of the property for the LTV calculations (found online), you don't need to pay for appraisal.

In fact, the city assesses $0 for my land value, and the total assessment is all classified as building.

I have a couple rentals that are in a higher tax rate area but my particular properties assessed value are not high so my ROI is good.  

Have the current landlord go thru each unit and assess the damages.