This slows me down because I have to rely on the loan broker to type these up for me as I find each deal. 

@Chris Yeakel I would never rely on Caprate to reflect the value of a purchase.

Most of the JV partners I work with are from out of state, so they rely on me to keep them well updated. 

I didn’t mention W-2 income because I’m not relying on it to fund any properties -- they should pay for themselves and then some.

It sounds like the loan you're referencing for commercial properties (30-year amortization) relies on agency debt, where the loan balance would likely need to be over $1M.   

I have relied on craigslist and zillow in Clarence and usually fill a vacancy within a month, and Clarence is not very populated.

I relied on the reputation of the company and checked their figures and the neighborhood remotely.

I’m solely relying on Zillow, Trulia and Redfin. 

I really had to make a couple trips to get a feel and now I still really rely on my PM for neighborhood recomendations.  

So was Zillow actually relying on the active investors it had qualified to figure out the real world rehab numbers & ARV and thus come up with the "instant offer" more than their algorithm?