Im about to put 3% down to book a townhome is milpitas. i haven't visited the physical site yet but got on their priority list through their web site.  I want to get back as much money as possible so im thinking of go...

Knowing exactly where you want to go will help you determine what steps you should take now and what strategy to follow.

Study the market to determine what the home would sell for.

The only other way is to cherry pick over time.

The buyer picked the house up from my investor friend at costs and he is the one who made the profit because my investor friend refused to hold a bit.

The DMV area is a big area to cover, so I would recommend you picking a general location to start learning about. 

Pick the venue first, then vendors and other details will fall in place!

He runs the Charlotte Outback Investor Meeting and has been on a rol this past year picking up properties for little cost and getting maximum ROI out of his tenants. 

I know the cap rate is an outcome of the NOI/Purchase price, but what if you are trying to determine the purchase price and only have the NOI variable, how do I find the Cap Rate?

If there are a bunch of liens or Lis Pendens , then you may or may not want to proceedAlso, find out how much they owe and to see if their are 1 or 2 mortgages on the property.You can usually determine how much the seller owe by simply looking at the amount of the mortgage, the date of the purchase, then use a rate of around 4% to 5% and do an Amortization Schedule of the months since the mortgage was recorded.