If a seller would object and say their house is perfect/great, I usually respond saying "yes, your house may be in great condition but the kitchen/bathroom style may be outdated and the paint job/flooring might be old as well compared to what new homeowners are looking for".

The AVM we provide is a great starting point to evaluate a large number of properties in diverse areas quickly to find a few properties that may suit your investment objectives.  

Also, you may want to speak with a real estate tax specialist about this, but remember that if you change a primary residence into a rental, then you can count the net income as an addition to your salary and the loan is not counted against your credit.I looked at your spreadsheet and noticed that you may be able to cut costs by looking into different insurance companies with lower rates, but equal coverage, and also by appealing your property taxes.  

Westin,Regarding value when working the lead, I agree with above, in that it's good judgement and experience...   ...however, to expand a bit....   ...on the sale side, I deal with Private Money Investors, and my agreement is set up so that we get three (3) different opinions (a realtor of his choice, my opinion as a Real Estate Broker, and then we enlist a "local specialist" agent as the third opinion).Hope this helps!

Good point on deferred maintenance, just had inspection and owner is agreeing to fix all major objections.

Objective: buy a single family condo, least down payment, reasonable return on cash investment, hold for at 5 least years. 

With your concern on planning, Maybe look at available courses or tutorials on some project software.( In school it was Microsoft Project), most commercial builders will use Primavera, and online objects for residential like builderTREND and Foundation.

Do the normal search, and sort by reviews - you'd obviously want the highest number of reviews & highest ratings.From Angie's List, I've hired an exterminator, an HVAC guy, a gutter guy, plus a basement waterproofing specialist in the past year - and 3 out of 4 of the referrals did a top notch job at an awesome price.

But I put the blame on myself for taking the first steps on initial action, but not following through and following the shiny object to another type of investing. @ Roy N. had a great idea about just digesting what's on the website and forums.

For me, this is what I refer to as a "shinny object of distraction".