For comparison you may want to look at whether the track work that was done on the 7 line a couple of/few years ago had any real effect on housing prices.  

No matter how many times you walk the neighborhood on google earth it's no comparison to being there and living it.

Here's one of dozens of topics on this we've been discussing over the past few years: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...And here's the comparison matrix I put together for my own needs before landing on YourPorter: https://docs.google.com/spread...

Other due outs: Comparison sales of quadplexes in the area from a realtor, lease details, and the parking lot needs work so an estimate of that.

For example, below is a comparison between the statewide energy cost in California vs.

I look at costs based on flipping a house, so I look at doing better than the minimum.Has the seller provided any kind of breakdown for his sub $40k renovation.As a comparison, I'm under contract on a house with a $44,000 Reno budget. 1150 SF, with about 400 finished in the basement, 3/1.5.

Hi all,- I threw together a basic spreadsheet to do this comparison with real numbers  - https://docs.google.com/spread...- Assuming a $200k house with 20% down and $200/mo cashflow,  - If you throw cashflow at mortgage every month, you will pay it off in 20.5 yrs as opposed to 30  - You definitely increase net worth faster by doing this (an extra $3,948 at year 10, which is pretty small, but still something compared to the total $24,000 cash you would have saved over the course of 10yrs at $200/mo)  - You hit $80k in equity at 6yrs 5mo as opposed to 6yrs 8mo    - this is the real advantage because it allows you to acquire another property faster, but there is a very small difference here- Overall, I would say following about this strategy:  - only do it if you are confident that low-interest fixed-loans will be available 6-10yrs down the road when you would be looking to refi    - would be a shame to lose that advantage for the small extra advantage of paying down mortgage over that time period  - this still seems like a no-risk, no-tax savings account or bond    - instead of parking extra income (from job or whatever) at bank with minimal returns while waiting to buy another property, "invest the money in your mortgage" by paying it down   - I suspect this strategy might start to look better if you had an extra $1-2k/mo from job to put into this to really supercharge equity which is what David was talking about in book, but I'd have to crunch numbers more           - of course, have to make sure that refi closing costs won't wipe out any gains, and you don't risk losing a low rate fixed loan as @Robert Purcell said    - also, I suspect that nominal stock market returns of 7-10%/yr would outperform this (even with capital gains) because the money will be invested for 6yrs before pulling out for a new down payment (which means long-term capital gains as opposed to short-term and you have a better chance to smooth out stock market cycles so portfolio doesn't crash when you want to liquidate and use it as a down payment for property), but I'd have to crunch numbers more- Interesting idea to tune results, but I don't think I'll use it any time soon.

However, not an apples to apples comparison.

The guidelines allow for this based on either current lease agreements, or, for vacant units, you can request as part of your appraisal a 1007 rent comparison schedule where the appraiser, in addition to determining the value of the property, will complete a 1007 form which basically determines what the vacant unit(s) would rent for based on market comparables. 

You can make Comparisons of ANY investments to each other as long as you know ALL the cash flows for each investment.I personally think the IRR is the most powerful Calculation you can learn.