Some useful resources I have come across thus far:Cromford Report - Phoenix area (overall real estate market, specific for PHX area)bls.gov (economic information in general)http://www.city-data.com/ (more economic/general information)www.trulia.com (crime, schools, etc.)Are there paid sites/reports that can be found to compare overall markets bullet by bullet for a period of time and over time?

Free or discounted rent is not much of an incentive (compared to SoCal where rents are significantly higher) out here because the demands exceed the value of the rent. 

I think you are a little low on your closing costs if you are doing a traditional loan.  

I think it's important to have a business plan. i havent started my investing yet so take my opinion with a grain of salt but the more I think about it the more complicated it seems. really what im trying to do is just buy multi family properties at some kind of discount. add value by renovations or by purchasing in a down market. then fix it up to my companies standards and get them rented out one unit at a time. some of the things ive been thinking about include financing. how will i finance deals after the first 4 or so when the banks stop lending traditionally. also how much do I need in resurves to cover everything from fees to extra holding costs to a major cap expenditure. i want my business to have a plan so i will succeed no matter what. so i think its important to think about those types of concerns regardless of what type of investing you're doing and factor those in to your plan. im excited to save money for the first deal im only at 3k so far.

The fact that you have to pay two sets of closing costs is relatively minor compared to those things.

Either option depends on mostly one factor.....does it make sense to buy the lot and pay the costs of new construction, compared to what the market price for the duplex in good shape is.  

@Matt K. yeah I guess rents don’t scale as much percentage wise compared to prices...it’s crazy that I’m getting $3,000 for 3/1s (800 sq ft)  in deep East Oakland.

They are really tiny compared to other Banks that's why you have to have a local relationship with them to get such good loans.

Here are the stats.Listed Price: $850 / MoMarket Range: $800 - $975 / MoMy Unit: Above Average compared to marketAnd, here are the results so far:Inquires to rent: 48 (in under 24 hours)Showings Held: 8 (So far, more scheduled)Applications 3 (So far)The only problem is all of the people that applied so far have credit under 650 and the person above 650 has an income of 2.7x of rent.

Basically, they want to see how much rent you're getting compared to the expected PITI of what your new mortgage will be...and they all use different formulas to decide how much money they'll cash out to you based on your rental income.So it's not just as simple as giving you 75% of the appraised value of your property.