In the example property I used below in the screen shots, the house is listed at $759,000, the automated Zestimate is $792,258, but my comp evaluation using Zillow's own "Price this house" tool is $674,252.

For that reason, I'm going to delete this post tomorrow as I stumbled into a means of evaluating areas...I can find top prop mgmt co's in any area, find their listings and just keep track as to how fast units are renting and even respond as a perspective tenant to see how hungry they are to rent to me. 

I've found my investor group attracts many tire kickers, who are always welcome to "listen and learn" on the on-site property evaluations.  

You are wise to evaluate your strategy as real estate is constantly changing.

Other little things: 
•You have to know how to evaluate the deal, you should know how the numbers work. 


You'd be a volunteer.Suggest you search on these forums for PETIO which is a format for evaluating properties and determining their merits.You ought to determine if this is, in fact, abandoned, as opposed to just vacant.

Hi, I recently joined Bigger Pockets to better understand real estate investing and how to evaluate opportunities.

The other items I had were already covered by others so you should have plenty to consider in your evaluation.  ;-)

And I would also go there to choose an onsite manager from the 10 tenants and evaluate how they will do. 

In general  cap rates aren't that relevant evaluating residential assets other than for yourself.The important thing to me with houses is equity capture in my expensive market.