RE Agents , Lenders, Property Managers, Property Evaluation (like by county or state), etc. 

Find someone you can trust to provide deals to evaluate and then verify that they're giving you the full picture.

I think its time to re-evaluate my lease and tenant screening process.

If you are in a new city or somewhere you haven't lived long enough to witness the gentrification first hand, how do you evaluate future value of a neighborhood?  

Evaluate your needs, wants, strengths and weaknesses. 

Having said that, most appraisers are required by their appraisal organization and state real estate commissions to "fairly" evaluate comparable sales presented by the owner or buyer.

- How do you evaluate the quality of an interior designer?

We eventually wrote an algorithm that looks at the entire MF market and gives us an indication of what deals might be viable...there is a lot to understanding how to evaluate properties and their performance...but most comes from experience...education.

It is their (and the owner's) responsibility to provide accurate expense numbers for you to evaluate the deal and make a competitive offer.

But the big problem with cash-on-cash return is that it doesn't account for taxes, loan paydown, or appreciation, which are all a huge part of your actual returns on investment.When you take those things into consideration, you can get a way different evaluation of the same property or market using different metrics.For a real world example of this, consider this article here about the Best Cities to be a Mom-and-Pop Landlord:"Oklahoma City is the best city to be a small-time landlord in the short term, which is when comparing rental income versus assumed monthly mortgage payment, according to a new research released Friday by real estate website Zillow.