Current financing available, construction costs and how to reduce them, appraisal trends, best practices when building on investment properties, rental values, design trends, how to minimize the construction time, ideal target markets, which city's DOB's are helpful and which aren't, preferred vendors, etc.

However, after receiving an initial appraisal (projected value) we started to question BRRRR'ing it.

As far as I can tell, the bank's appraiser will want to see before and after pictures that show that quality work was performed, but does that mean reviewing permits?  

That's where I found this duplex listed for $105,000.We went under contract for $100,000, the appraisal came in low at $92,000, and after some pushback from the seller he acquiesced and we closed at $92,000.

However, after receiving an initial appraisal (projected value) we started to question BRRRR'ing it.

That's where I found this duplex listed for $105,000.We went under contract for $100,000, the appraisal came in low at $92,000, and after some pushback from the seller he acquiesced and we closed at $92,000.

That's where I found this duplex listed for $105,000.We went under contract for $100,000, the appraisal came in low at $92,000, and after some pushback from the seller he acquiesced and we closed at $92,000.

However, after receiving an initial appraisal (projected value) we started to question BRRRR'ing it.

Both require credit pulls and usually full appraisals...with a possibility of desktop underwriting on some HELOCs. 

Because the financing is different for buildings with more than 4 units, as you may already know, you can't really use a per-unit price on a 4-unit and extrapolate to a 5 or 6 unit :(Instead of looking for comparable sales, you usually end up having to apply a market cap rate to the net income (NOI) of the property, which appraisers call the "income approach".As for what's a "market cap rate", well that's about as much art vs. science as (in some way) choosing good sales comps are.For a B area of Providence I think you'd be safe using a 5% or 5.5% cap rate, but if it was an A area like the East Side you might want to go with 4% or 4.5%.You should also ask around as I certainly haven't done any market survey of cap rates.