Has anyone seen that to be accurate?  

Buying land and constructing looks to be attractive play to me . if real estate corrects by 15-20% then all i am losing is the 15% profit margin assuming i have assessed things accurately . 

I know very little about rehab or construction, so I am worried about taking on a fixer without a knowledgeable partner.My biggest challenge so far is how to accurately determine AVR without experience.

You would first have to distinguish between performing and non-performing notes.  

What type of jobs do people work, look for clues at how much of the population is dependent on public assistance.www.movoto.comI started doing this when I purchase properties and find it is very accurate at predicting the desirability of the neighborhood and the quality of tenants that will want to live in your property.

That way you'd get more accurate numbers and inspectors will be more familiar with the regional hardships buildings and structures endure and are damaged by.

It is not possible to give an exact estimate from such a cursory examination but it does give a fairly accurate range.  

Is it possible to buy a Bay Area house in this market and have it perform well as an investment?

You can only accurately determine if the spore count is to high if you have a comparison to go off of, which would be the outside air. 

If you don't bring money to a partnership then you need to bring the time.Time is putting it together, dealing with the problems, and performing all of the management tasks.