Ideally, you want an agent who is an investor himself/herself so that they can see everything from the investor's point of view and be able to quickly identify which properties have the potential for cash flow and/or appreciation (and know which areas are trending up or down).

I am trying to evaluate a property, and I'm curious what many call an ideal or excellent cap rate for a rental property.

Not the ideal 36" per side, but do-able. 

Ideally, 10 years ago. 

Not the end of the world, but not ideal either considering you'll be renting a single family property with one meter for the entire property to three separate entities.

For me networking is ideal.

Ideally, you are walking away with the down payment financed for as little out of pocket as possible.  

The cash flow and margins dictate highest and best use most of the time for investors, so conservative builds don't happen as often as what would be "socially ideal".

It is important to discuss your scenario with your loan officer first to ensure you have the ideal exit strategy.

What I understand from my nascent research is that one should ideally form a legal entity (LLC  etc) to buy any investments to protect personal assets from any lawsuits but I am curious how many actually do that because it comes with an added overhead.