We take a really data driven approach to the site selection, concentrating only on centerpoints that analytically meet the requirements our operators are looking for, and then we go in and start to match that analytical requirement with the desirable physical attributes we look for.  

Use Zillow and rentometer.com to get data and analyze a few from your home to see what type of returns there are.If these meet your investment criteria then start looking in person.

But this is where in your offer you back it up with the data you used to find your price because apartments are valuated based on the NOI.However, you also ran your own numbers with your projections based on the data you found doing all the above things.

Basically they are more likely to "extrapolate" or "conjure up" needed 2-4 unit data than they are to compare it to a SFR.

But you need to start somewhere and i feel like this might be a great opportunity. demographics are great, military base near by, new data center, and a new manufacturing facility of auto parts, there is also a university.  

People within that 2 or 3 month window, it's more like 70%, if I start deleting that more recent data, then I screwed up b/c there's about a 70% chance I would otherwise have actually used that information to help someone buy a home.

That's on the data side.

Baltimore City data hasn't been encouraging over the last several years - population is shrinking (they saw their biggest drop last year and lowest pop. in a century), crime continues to spike (300+ homicides a year), and businesses are leaving.  

However, you'll have another educated data-point suggesting the value. 2. 

I am curious what you did for your first real estate investment.I am in the learning phase right now...do you have any tools you know of or general market data points you found helpful to analyze for single/multi family home deals?