a flip requires you to buy, rehab and sell correctly. 

@Scott Stover, if you are in it for long term (10 years+) then  go for it, but be mindful that the bay area housing is at it's peak - lot of BPers are predicting/hoping a bay area housing market correction for far too long now.

Currently using “rentometer” to determine rental rates and scattered google results for average CAP rates for use in rental property calculators — any suggestions for better tools?

When you don't, you are susceptible to being sold a property that looks like it has a correct valuation based on comps, but the comps (although they may be very close...even across the street) are not valid because they are not part of the micro-market.When you find/analyze for micro-markets, you are analyzing every property in that micro-market by default. 

It's ~2hrs away, so I'm not sure whether hiring a mgmt company is the correct choice in that scenario or not.Cashflow would be nice, obviously, but that's not my main goal.

They are definitely hands off, 1031 exchange eligible, and have been a wonderful planning tool for a lot of folks...including those that still own/manage real estate in addition to their DSTs.  

New to the rental analysis tool.

ALL that said they may be an example in the FlePlace under the tools tab above.

You just have to have them fill out the correct forms.  

Hi BP'rs,I'm a bit behind on my podcast listening pace (but I'll catch up).I recently listened to couple of older podcasts where Brandon Turner had mentioned that there is a lead generation system in Beta stage for pro members.Is this correct ?