I feel very good about what they're doing and how they have helped me evaluate the areas. 

Thanks for the evaluable input!

or the evaluation of the property's worth?

Underwriters are humans that evaluate risk for a living, and recognize that huge distinction. 

The lender is making an evaluation as to income and assets on the Borrowers on the loan (not the title holders), of which you are one, and of course would remain one.

There are enough great agents out there, you don't need to waste your day on the bad ones.Now to address some of your questions,1a) Evaluate how large your debt-to-income ratio is.

So how do you get that knowledge. 1) reading here; there are many threads on the 50% rule, the 2% rule, the 70% minus repairs rule etc.2) Read thread here where someone asks for help evaluating a deal. 3) Go look at properties and start to evaluate them.

Mike,Most people on this site factor in all units in situations like this to evaluate the deals potential despite the fact that you will be occupying one of the units .

In the example property I used below in the screen shots, the house is listed at $759,000, the automated Zestimate is $792,258, but my comp evaluation using Zillow's own "Price this house" tool is $674,252.

For that reason, I'm going to delete this post tomorrow as I stumbled into a means of evaluating areas...I can find top prop mgmt co's in any area, find their listings and just keep track as to how fast units are renting and even respond as a perspective tenant to see how hungry they are to rent to me.