Just my two cents... especially since you can just re-use your VA loan when you move (granted you haven't spent your limit on it).

There is also a height setbacks and sometimes a FAR (floor area ratio) which limits how much you can built.

But, once you get the hang of things, the sky's the limit from there.

Some of the limitations with just calculating the cash flow is that you're not taking into account all of the sources of dollars coming in. 

For any client I work with that has limited knowledge on the subject, I extensively explain the home-buying process (including financing) whether they want me to or not.

We are sailors ourselves but availability always seems pretty limited (ie, lots of demand) when we look.

@Surendra Chawla and others, for the Phoenix metro area, I found a very useful resource called the Cromford Index.This is put together by ASU's Head of the Real Estate Dept (Prof Michael Orr).http://getyourphx.com/refresher-the-cromford-report/http://cromfordreport.com/index.htmlThis seems to be a very unique and highly useful index specific and limited only to Phoenix area.https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Hello, Would like to post a question for all the folks who invest out of state (or those who have had experience) -  Do you recommend any specific tools or resources to study trends and potential in that market?

This method leaves a lot of stress and unknown factors off the table and limits the pool of potential buyers to serious investors instead of dealing with the potential issues of individual buyers looking to buy a owner-occupied unit. 

The issue I run into here are limits on how many mortgages I can have in my name from various banks.