The "liberal arts" approach would be to tell you that sophisticated investing precludes buying either equity or cash flow - we create both, not buy them.A more mathematical answer would be to tell you that the 2 most applicable measurements of ROI are the cash on cash return (CCR) and the internal rate of return (IRR).  

Depends on how sophisticated you want it.

Unless we sit down and perform a rather sophisticated analysis of all of the cash flows, including the exit, discounted appropriately and honestly to net present buying power, we just do not know if we are indeed keeping up and getting ahead...Though, if we think we are doing well - we are doing well.  

The way to ensure that no other loans would be used is through the agreements/by-laws/operating agreements of the entity in title.Other investors could join based on knowing who the other investors were, thier abilities and level of sophistication, might be fine and a good deal.

I doubt it's a very sophisticated seller.Gaurav S.

Depending on the sophistication of the seller, they may be able to use your inexperience and lack of knowledge to their advantage.There is no advantage avoiding a good Buyers Agent that is looking out for your best interests.

Our district clerk is pretty sophisticated when it comes to technology.

A more sophisticated time-value-of-money approach is needed for a more thoughtful analysis of an investment and how improvements impact value over time.You can't really compare capitalization rates in different submarkets very easily either.

I hear from those attending that this has driven average returns on tax liens to 6-9%, but that's for financial institutions with scale that can hire cheap labor to visit every site (which is a must to ensure the property is in good shape), go to the local assessor's office and look up all the liens, hold onto the lien for several years, administer the ongoing payments and any foreclosure proceedings, and run pretty sophisticated spreadsheets that estimate whether you're going to get 6% or 8% return, based on economic forecasts, etc.

Again, these prices are very basic, and there is really no substitution for pulling a tape measure on each space and plugging your metrics into a more sophisticated estimation model.Please remember that these costs vary a greatly by region, and our company also receives excellent pricing because of its size.