@J Scott You are correct that the industry standard use of IRR is for measuring the complete cycle of an investment, acquisition through disposition.

Regarding terminology, I highly recommend Frank Gallinelli's book "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow...And 36 other Key Financial Measures".As stated above, focus your REI.

So then the measurement of that hedge is simply the return on your capital adjusted for inflation.

Take good measurements and you can do it all right on their system.

So, even if the 2% or 50% rule is added, there isn't a clear measure of the HOA fees attached?

And 36 Other Key Financial Measures, written by Ralph Gallinelli.

Can anyone think of a good metric to gauge the proper measures for leverage?

We literally were at the office 5 days last week to get one for a house and every day they told us we needed one more thing including interior drawings and measurement of every single wall in 3 story house.

The charity mentor has been to the property to measure for furniture.

mark..even though you asked in 2008 and now it is 2014... http://www.ministorageoutlet.com/ here is a site you can use if you cant click it just copy and past it.. it tells you the estimate of what a storage unit will cost you and it lets you pick all the measurements and stuff..not as much as you would guess.. my husband thought around 100-200,000 for a unit.. it was only 12,000 for 14 units and all the measurements i did