Ok so I have been doing a lot of reading on rentals and I know the 50% rule is the standard rule to go by when analyzing these deals.

I just did a post on my BP blog where I used the recent Pinal County Arizona tax lien auction results with my added data of Property Type to show how to analyze your competition for better results.I did it as a blog post since it is too long for the forum.

Before shelling out big bucks to do this analyze what are the market rents?

Also, I am in the process of analyzing the rental prices in the area to see if a rent increase would be possible.

It also made analyzing deals easier because I knew my financing costs ahead of time.As to finding the deal first - I noticed when I went to local REIA groups that there were tons of people pursuing that strategy, while the few people with money got to cherry pick.

He mainly wants to get out from beneath it because he is older and does not want to be a landlord anymore.My question is: How should I go about in analyzing his asking price?

I'd love to live in a world where accountants didn't have privileged knowledge, but rather a way of thinking and analyzing that adds value, but even with the Internet, we're not there yet.

The fist thing I would recommend is to build up and set aside ample reserves to handle any challenges with the current properties and really focus on what your monthly net cash flows are for planning and analyzing.

I wonder what you will find if you analyze the ROI between Van & Seattle.

I know there are other factors I should be analyzing, any suggestions would be appreciated.Thanks Jon.