I’m estimating because of the market and recent sales on the same block my home is worth $315,000 now.

I'm going to lose this sale if I can't get this straightened out.

I'm John, a Sales Engineer from Des Moines, Iowa and I'm preparing to find my first deal.

Our family has been renting a single-family home (see description/additional background below) for the last 2 years and are considering buying the property from the landlord via private sale.

Know the sales prices and rental prices for different neighborhoods you are interested in.

I was just notified by my CPA that a 1031 exchange might not be the  best way for me to take money from the sale of one property and buy another property.

For example if you know the price of the characteristics, you can calculate expected sales prices for different possible renovations among a menu of different ways to renovate, and then try to make a return maximizing decision.

Agree on the price up front, or agree to get 1-2 appraisals for the price at the time of sale. 

It seems like the highest they've been in recent memory is 8.5-9% back in early 2000s, generally have been floating in the 7's, and in super hot markets have gotten into the 5's.If I'm attempting to forecast my apartment building's value at sale in few years (3/5/10yrs), can I be reasonably confident that the cap rate will remain within +/- 1.0% in my local area?

Once you sell a particular property for a profit, that profit must be rolled into another property of "like-kind" within 180 days of the sale.