After all, being there on site will keep many risks down in the first place, like parties, drunken visitors, etc. that you have little control over when you are off site.You need to assess the risks involved in ownership before you assume that any rental must be held in an LLC.

This assessment will place the market demand and address the "trendy" issues before you ever get to the subject property.

I also don't like assessed values.

Great assessment, J!

So, IMO, Your offer on any property should be based on your due diligence, never an asking price or an assessment made for the seller.

Are there any assessments in the works?

It could be a number of things, including (but certainly not limited to) * Loss of a job * Illness * ARM adjustment * Property tax hike * DivorceIn any case, you first need to compile and assess what the most compelling reasons for hardship are.

I believe it is worth while because investors are faced with these kinds of decisions every day and it its beneficial to deal with them assessing the facts, not with one liners or opinions based on inaccurate information or even worse an ulterior motive.

Check the Search Suggestion Tool to assess the number of searches conducted for those terms in the previous month.

It might be interesting to look at that site, but I would never rely on the values there for any true assessment.