Accounting is how I measure the results of my investing strategy.... but, that's just me.

I'm happy to make a 10% net profit as measured against total basis, your preference may differ.

By creating a basic checklist you can measure how effective your business decisions were, which ones lead to problems, and what you can do more often to lead to desirable results.For me, Tenant screening, it would look like this.Phone Screen (Yes Or NO)Application Received (Yes Or NO)Called References (Yes Or NO)Physical Walk Through w/ tenant (Yes Or NO)Back Ground Check (Yes Or NO)Final Decision (Yes Or NO)

Price out materials @ stores, ex: measure a rooms floor size.

Now that things are truly nasty, bernanke is taking the same measures as Greenspan but at a more appropriate time.Also, Canda's dollar will remain strong due to its resource based economy.

But you can take some very simple measures to be sure they will fail if they are trying to cheat you.

IF YOU DON"T MEASURE YOU CAN'T IMPROVE.You should be able to tell what the average vacancy rate is for your multi families vs SFH. 

I have been doing some minor renovations to my primary and I have found I measure the scope of the project on whether or not I feel I can, or want to complete it myself.

-Certain times of year places take longer to rent, the annual average isn't a great measure due to seasonal variability.

So, if you really want to reward hard work, I think you need a different measuring tool than the number of dollars earned.2.