when you could take the same 40 to 60k buy a nice 130k home in Indy and call it a day and not go through this trama.. a lot of it though is the investors for some reason they think COC cash flow is the number one metric in owning rentals.. its part of it but not by any stretch the whole reason to buy a rental.. its IRR long term that is the metric

Then work with that professional to drive the process, facilitate, and hopefully land on a viable solution that works for you and them (presumably ROI and many other metrics would be part of that analysis).

I think it's perfectly fine to use a cap rate for a SFR, even though it's a "commercial" metric. 

So for your leads (at least this week) 69% of your leads came from website....METRICS BABY!

I had spent months analyzing different metrics for 40 different cities that I had read were great cities for investments.

It can provide a rough estimate of your expected returns, but is not a valid metric in determining what to offer on the property.

So you need to de-risk the process for them by demonstrating that you have experience, a team in place, access to capital, and that you know what you are doing.I think in your case, you also need to get a very fixed idea of the kind of deals you are looking for an set out some metrics for decision-making.  

This metric also indicates a negative cashflow situation.

I realize me doing it in accounting is my own prerogative, but I want to do it in the way that taxes require it for the ease of doing taxes.I do have a few things I do that lets me see individual property metrics so I know if one is underperforming and whatnot, I'm just really asking about accounting and tax filings.

Export that to Excel and add a few formulas to track all the metrics you want.