An appraiser will use both methods: The comparable sales (comps) approach, and the income approach, when valuing the portfolio (and possibly a third approach as well: replacement cost).Then they will assign a weight to each derived value (probably with a heavy emphasis on comps, since these are SFH) and then determine their professional opinion of the value of your portfolio as of a given date. 

@Isaac BartelsPay off that student debt…it’s dead weight.

Did a full rehab: new kitchen, bathrooms, tore down a load-bearing wall separating kitchen and living area, floors, paint, landscaping....the works What was the outcome?

Lots of questions loaded in here.

Communication & Clean Screenings are worth their weight in Gold. however, I still do think people will use this program as their cash cow until someone gets stabbed or ODs on their property. 

I'm also concerned that he didn't know a permit was needed.If your GC is worth his weight in salt, he should be able to cross-check this for validity.

I've done two above ground and both took two 20-ton dump truck loads worth of dirt to level the yard properly.

@Johnquel Jones BiggerPockets community has loads of info about getting started in real estate with little or no money down.

The lender’s risk isn’t really tied to anything like the investor’s credit history or their personal debt load, unlike the normal mortgage lender’s concerns.

As you said, most GC's right now are pretty loaded up and realistically will cherry pick the projects they want and blow off the others.