Instead of seeing 20 offers on a home you will probably be competing with 2 or 3 other offers.No one has a crystal ball to know what the banks are hiding or what their plan is to release these new listings or when they will release them.

Sf houses compete with apartments, obviously, so does one use the apartment vacancy rate to assess relative scarcity of available sf rentals?

The best deals get multiple offers immediately and you'll need all the strength you can get competing against other investors.

Remember too that you'll be competing against many cash buyers who've just traded in their Zynga, Facebook, etc., options.I looked into acquiring a SFR in the Bay Area earlier this year, but was overwhelmed by the amount of all cash offers (over asking) I had to compete with.

You will have big players with large amounts of capital.

That's who you're competing with for *good* tenants.

If they were actual deals, don't you think the people you have found "Competing" for offers wouldn't have snapped those up?

. :)Another thing people fail to mention (in us competing w/ China & India now) is our ability to entreprenuer.There's quite a few awesome entreprenuers on this website alone...

Est cost of repair are more like updating the property to compete with midrange of the comps.

If you are unable to get this info yourself or unable to competently analyse and evaluate comparable information, you will need to hire an appraiser or real estate consultant.