The more you know, the more confidence you will feel and sounding like a professional will help you.

You have to really be confident in your numbers.

The trends give me confidence that appreciation will continue in the DC/NOVA area though for sure.

You want something so that, in the unlikely event your deductions were actually challenged, you would be able to go into court confident that you have a paper/documentation trail supporting your deductions completely.In fact, merely including such documentation with your disposition of security deposit letter to the tenant, is usually enough to show the tenant that you know what you're doing, and will prevail if they were thinking about challenging your deductions. 

Yes I'm trying to engage with people and learn.

I'll definitely look into this and try to grasp how everything is calculated so I can be confident in my estimates.

I'm confident you'll be able to enjoy similar engagement from the community. 

If you're confident in your knowledge, I say try to find a confident, knowledgeable partner and go in 50/50.

.- Focus on educators who are confident enough in their ability to educate that they don't charge large upfront non-refundable fees.

I also happen to be engaged in local politics and work in the Bronx.