I use it as a general screening tool.  

Similarly with the rent ranges - make sure you get opinions from property managers, online tools (rentometer, etc...) to see if your rental estimates are current.

At the very least, another tool in your toolbelt, and you can figure out what works best when you have the deal.

The reason CAP rates are popular is because it removes the financing variable and allows investors to analyze deals on an equal playing field.

BP has various tools available to help you analyze your deals (rental, flips, wholesale, etc.), feel free to use them: https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators 7.

The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

I'm going to give a little plug here to Bigger Pockets' "Multifamilly Millionaire Vol 1", which comes with an estimator tool for CapEx and Repairs that I really like. 

Just the cost of doing business in an up and coming niche.I’ve considered building a reference tool for my local area, but my primary county has 56 different municipalities each with different rules, we cover 6 counties, and Ohio has 88 counties.

So you are limiting the total risks to one box at a time.Insurances, asset striping and entities are all complementary but not similar asset protection tools. 

BP has various tools available to help you analyze your deals (rental, flips, wholesale, etc.), feel free to use them: https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators 7.