With a little intelligence and even without outside insight and wisdom (as from this forum) it would only take a couple rehabs to figure what to do and what not to do.People do make real money at doing #1 and #4 (I'm one of them :D ), but you caught on to the key very quickly.

What are some of the guidelines I should follow when trying to figure out if a deal is good or not?

I would say get it under contract with a contingency to leave upon your inspection Look at the guys books, figure out your financing to see what you'd be paying for mortgage, taxes, maintenance, etc. etc..

Even a ballpark figure is fine.

Zillow compiles their data from several different sources, and it is not always the most accurate data.Good to know--I figured as much, but the comparisons _I_ had made here--Zillow vs what the agent had said,-- were the same, just the agent had given me much more, and zillow didn't have it.

I just signed up and I figure the education I'll get couldn't hurt, but I was wondering if anyone here has earned one of those $1,000 checks for finding them a deal.

Price/ Unit $ 52,500 Price/ Sq. ft $ 74.46 Rental Income Scheduled Rental Income 48,000.00 ( per year) Vacancy (0%) 0 Effective Rental Income 48,000.00 Service and Other Income 1,615 Effective Gross Income 49,615.00 Operating Expenses Utilities: 4,320.00 Repair & Maintenance 1,300.00 Turnover Costs/ Cleaning 3,000.00 Taxes 2,568.00 Insurance 1,750.00 Total Operating Expenses 12,938.00 Net Operating Income 36,677.00 Debt Service 22,884.00 Cash Flow 13,793.00 Cash Flow/ Month 1,149.42/mo Cap Rate 9.178% 4 2-bedroom units rent for $550 4 1-bedroom units rent for $450 Can anyone help me figure out if this is a worthwhile deal?

Its very rectangular so half of it could be made into something else perhaps inexpensively.I'm just trying to think of what may bring this house hope and then figure out what it will cost so I can shoot across an offer.Thanks a lot!

In my own limited contractor experience, I always figured my time and materials as accurately as possible and then factored a 10% profit margin on top of that.I would think that any software would have to somehow be locally calibrated, because material and labor cost can vary dramatically from region to region.

How do you figure over 200 per month maintenance?