Right now we own a single family home that has been rented out very successfully (knock on wood) for the past 18 months, and we are currently evaluating several more properties in a neighboring town.

My experience with initial tenant applicants made me re-evaluate my decision of renting it out first. 

50% rule: rent * 50% - P&II'm over here playing with my financial calculator, and found something interesting.Rent * 50% = what you want your P&I payment to be equal to or less than.You can use that and a fina...

Real estate values can be calculated by evaluating comparable sales, income or (far less accurately) cost to construct.

@chris purcell I was praticing my property evaluation.

My professional background is in technology test and evaluation.

I use the rental prop. calculator in BP to evaluate properties and I love it.

Once you learn how to evaluate properties for resale or rental, you can pursue whatever your end goal is.

Use the existing rents for evaluation - - they're real and all your marketing may not yield improvements.If there's known vacancy issues, then adjust the the GSI (sum off all rents * 12 months) and subtract the loss rents from vacancies (number of units vacant * average rents * number of months their empty) . 

I am currently evaluating a monthly cash flow of $1300.