Diversity of renters, length of leases in place, property condition, and location can also affect risk and value, ultimately impacting the cap rate.When someone says a property has a cap rate of 5%, or that assets in a given area are trading around a 5-cap, they are talking about the return on that property.

There are no REIAs anywhere near my area, and I would like to get some insight and a different perspective on what methods can be used, scaling, financing, etc. 

My medium-term goal is to own and rent 10-15 properties in the next 5 years with this method.

For quick and dirty method, apply the 50% rule for expenses.If this is a distressed asset, give them a cap rate before and after stabilization.

Another alternative for new construction homes would simply be the "advanced framing method".

House hacking, seller financing, subject-to, flipping, wholesaling are just a few methods that come to mind.

You will have two escrows, two closing, and two sets of closing costs in this method and you will also need to bring funds to the table to close the transaction between you and seller.More importantly, assignments as a means to wholesale are typically executed illegally as they violate CA DRE laws for brokering without a license so I strongly suggest that you look into the legalities of your wholesale structure before you proceed. 

And the reason why is simple:"Where imposture, ignorance, and brutal cupidity, are the stock in trade of a small body of men, and one is described by these characteristics, all his fellows will recognise something belonging to themselves, and each will have a misgiving that the portrait is his own."

If they bring me something else, the onus is on them.By the way, I work with a number of REA, and none of them have a problem with this, and all of them agree this method is one they prefer because it wastes far less time...and all of the agents are very experienced...and all of them are very good at filtering out properties before they bring them to me, so I rarely (less than 5% of the time), back out of a deal due to the inspection.

I'm particularly focused on those of us utilizing the Brrrr method.