I think the comparison of the tax savings to the rental income is pretty harrowing.

A much more fair comparison would be Western Europe. 

Since interest rates change daily (and sometimes multiple times a day) if you get them on the same day it will give you the highest probability of being a fair comparison between the banks.  

In this comparison it would make sense to go with the first option. 

I found a deal that I thought was good at one point however because of a miscalculated rehab cost by the realtor in comparison to the true rehab estimate by the gc's, the margins became closer than I felt comfortable with for my partners money. 

The suggestion of PersonalUmbrella. com is a good one to get a comparison.  

My thought is going to pale in comparison, but maybe it will be good to keep in mind for the future? 

This is a very interesting question in deed....If you check out the book "Irrational Predictability" they have a very interesting case study on a subject similar to this one.Their findings were that if you decide to compensate someone partially for works they have voluntarily done then you cheapen the the entire scenario and actually leave the person being compensated more agitated than if you didn't compensate them at all.....Reason being when they do something voluntarily they get their pay from "Feeling good about doing something"....But when you introduce payment to the scenario instead of feeling good about doing something nice....They compare the pittance that you are offering to what they would normally be paid....and that serves as an insult....My suggestion would be to send him a note of appreciation with a gift card to an area restaurant....This allows him to know that you really appreciate his help and it doesn't set up a scenario of comparison to his normal fees.Eric Medemar

In comparison regular renters present less trouble and starter home prices for rental units are affordable in decent areas.

It also seems to me that my RE agent sends me comps that are really not very useful: comparison to 10yr older sale, different # of rooms, different zip code sometimes, different decade of constructionNow this is LA where areas have been developed in multiple times so i dont know if LA comps are different in that sense?