And CHMC numbers on vacancy and rents etc are often... quite full of fluff in comparison to on the ground numbers.

Read my first post and save yourself some trouble, move on, at least to the question posed by the OP.Bryan, not even worthy of comment, ridiculous comparison

**Investing with an IRA is a totally different tax paradigm, and making this comparison between a given asset (in this case real estate) in after-tax and retirement realms is an apples and oranges scenario.  

Not only will their math be based on an apples-to-oranges comparison, but you can do this yourself for free.

I care more about avoiding the loss then focusing on transaction fee comparison.

From a prospect's perspective, we're seeing more and more about these sites across most media channels and likely to view these sites as well for comparison.

If you are hoping to sell, put your selling shoes on and find a way to justify a high value -- that could be based on cap rate or based on comparison to local single family houses. 

I think the comparison should be more to those that pay $15,000+ to gurus/educators, and us.Otherwise, I agree, it is not fair to compare the average Joe interested in REI to the serious and committed business owner that joins our system.But, heck, I also don't know many other people that have bought over 1,000 houses like me either...

This is why I was making the lottery comparison.

Here is the process I have found works well for me in my market. http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4178/blog_posts/30113-how-to-qualify-as-a-landlord We are not selling used cars as in the comparison from @Joe Gore .