Good solid long term tenants are what I aim for and people looking for larger lots seem to fit that bill well.

I figured that the paper would be slightly undersized from the factory so I measured the middle for both length and width on the actual and sure enough, it is just a hair under.  

You measure the area of the counters and the edges and go to Home Depot and talk to the people for a rough estimate.

. - unfortunately I work in Concord and aim to clock out at 5pmBut now I know and have the meetup link and can try and plan to attend an event.

Most of them won't take time to measure the property and count what needs to be done until after they win the bid. 

On the surface it looks like you have two main factors, either people aren't earning enough to save up 20% down (totally possible as this is aimed at millennials who might already be up to their neck in student debt) or it means that housing prices have accelerated past the point where people can easily cobble together 20% down.  

Without knowing your repair cost, you really have no measure of your investment required.

We have a very specific niche that we aim for, which limits the range of homes that we are going to buy but also makes us "experts" in our local market within that niche, such that it is difficult for anyone to steal market share from us (i.e., we always have far more prospects than available units).  

@Angelo Goodwin How many units are you aiming for? 

I learned next to nothing about real estate through my coursework, except outdated ways to measure properties and a boatload of information I will literally never use again.