Sometimes charging lower rents and looking for long-term tenants to ensure steady cash flow is just as important and in a lot of ways more important.

Instead you might try giving examples of where you have helped an investor find a great deal or (more importantly) helped an investor save a lot of money by avoiding a costly mistake.

Often you can get a ballpark number from a contractor giving him basic details of what you want done including things like how much square footage you are talking about, quality of materials, and any other important details for a particular project.

Just make sure you get someone that understands what is important to you as an investor.

Most importantly, it makes you THINK like a successful person.

The most important thing to do is to create a solid marketing plan for yourself.

These often will vary from neighborhood to neighborhood so it is important to know the different rates even within the same city.All that being said... a 6% rate is significantly different from a 12% rate.

I need market values and more importantly recent sales prices.

I know that I need to be able to acurately estimate repairs, closing costs, ARV (very important), time, loan costs, etc.

You have a natural knackwith this and an eye for value.By all means, sit for the realtors exam and have thatall-important license.