if not, you may be living in the past....no, your property does not meet the 50% rule, but my first house didn't either...hopefully you already renovated well enough and that can eliminate most maintenence that you would otherswise have during the year...my first deal my payment was 400 and i rent for 700....doesn't meet the requirements, as i didn't know the math formulas...same as you..but we all learn ..right?

Even with only two properties, it seems there is always something that needs to be taken care of.That said, we've got absolutely no regrets, but we have definately adjusted our expectations of how much work this is going to be.Back more to the subject of the post, I haven't read the book, but read the synopsis on wikipedia, and it sounds like good stuff, though I thought the formula was kind of silly.I'm a big believer in living below your means.

here is a great formula to use on list source to find absentee owners to market to but of course you need to fill in with your zip code for the targeted areahttp://www.flip2freedom.net/archive/flip2freedom/my-highest-ROI-mailing-list-CRITERIA-201.html?

The price paid at Sheriff Sales, Tax Sales, Bank Owned, and foreclosures are ALL excluded from the PA state computations including the formulas used in the STEB reports for determining the CLR, which is done annually for all 67 Counties. 

I would recommend it to new investors especially because it helps explain many of the concepts and formulas used when analyzing deals.Mastering Real Estate Investments is a worthwhile reference to have around.

Is there a great formula to analyze bigger deals?

Nonetheless, many flippers will borrow as much as possible to do as many deals as they can and keep the pipeline full.Obviously, the more you borrow the less your Amount Invested is in the formula above and the higher is your ROI.

@EricJames  if my VF is 1500 and equity after expenses is 80k we have 5 yrs CF-really like your formula BTW-so there is not much point in selling.

I need your experienced input on a duplex I am trying to close on and would like to add to my portfolio as an "buy and hold" property.The asking price for the duplex is 110k and the duplex needs about 15k in renovations.I based my offer of 95k of the "value=NOI/cap rate" formula.

Andrew (and other investors) is using the NOI formula for rentals:GSI - Expenses = NOIThe NOI is the cash flow and you already know that's -negative :gulp:  When done with ALL the numbers, your taxes and mortgage payments are within the Expenses.So 30yrs of -NOI + the appreciation(if any; it's not a sure bet) will likely be a loose-loose result with 30yrs of working for nothing to rent it out and maintain it.Not an investment I would choose.