The response here is a bit late but thought I would share in case helpful for others in a similar situation:The self employment tax applies if you have income from a trade or business (which a facts and circumstances determination), regardless of where in the world that business is conducted.

I've been manually using the municipal GIS Mapping and Data service, which allows me to manually zoom in on properties and determine the owner, but I would much prefer to be able to filter the info first for parcel size over 5 acres and THEN use GIS to tell me the owner, parcel size, address, tax info, value, etc.Thanks

This is usually the determining factor when calculating deals and knowing if it’s worth it, but I don’t even know where to start.

Ultimately, your monthly income and DTI ratio will determine how much of a monthly payment (and therefore loan amount) you can afford.

I would get one or two airBNB properties under your belt first to determine if the strategy is indeed valuable.

To determine if it's worth doing a 4-Plex in addition to the cost you listed, I would recommend looking at; is the lot already graded, and ready for construction, are sewer, water, and gas already at the lot for connection, what type of rents are on your proforma, the biggest one many people forget about are the developer fees charged by the municipality to allow you to build the project, etc.There are a few soft cost items that will be a part of the project that do not get lower just because you're doing a smaller project.

What resources would you recommend for determining if a neighborhood/market is a desirable location for renters?

To determine the assessed value, multiply the taxable value of the home ($200,000) by the assessment ratio (35%): $200,000 X .35 = $70,000 assessed value.To calculate the tax, multiply the assessed value ($70,000) by the tax rate (.035): $70,000 x .035 = $2,450.00 tax for the fiscal year.If the home has already qualified for a 3% or 8% tax abatement, taxes will be figured on the assessed value from the base year it qualifed.

(I assume USA) That will determine if title or attorney state.Generally, the attorney for closing only charges $750 but doesn't review anything, he's just an escrow agent.

@Vemmanath Vasudevan  talk to your lender to determine what LTV they will offer on a refi and, for multifamily, what cap rate they are using in their lending criteria.