I've found actual listings to be reasonably accurate data points on both the sale and rent side of things.

Purchase price: $46,000 Cash invested: $46,000 Sale price: $78,000 Purchased prior to Tax Auction, but I saw it on the foreclosure listing.

Open houses and yard signs are strictly for agents to pick up "leads" and have virtually no effect on the sale of the house..  

Get quotes for all of the repairs from professionals and then send them to the seller and ask for that amount to be taken off the sales price.

I had a great conversation with @Kay Kay Singh today about the depreciation of gas stations, and thought I would share some relevant information regarding the tax laws for the general benefit of the BP community.Gas Stations (or 'retail motor fuels outlets' as they're called by the IRS) are depreciated over 15 years, and not 39 years like almost all other commercial properties.If any one of the following three criteria are met: It is not larger than 1,400 square feet. 50% or more of the gross revenues generated from the property are derived from petroleum sales. 50% or more of the floor space in the property is devoted to petroleum marketing sales.Here is the link to the IRS publication on this subject where the above words were take from.

Owners and tenants work together so that that the property shows well during the sale process.

Also the majority of the owners we negotiate with are not professional real estate investors, so they often prefer discussing sales price in terms of "price per pad", as opposed to cap rates and GOI/NOI.

This is pretty common on tax sale properties.   

Purchase price: $67,500 Sale price: $135,000 Single family home in great neighborhood was halfway renovated when a divorce drove the owners to liquidate.

There are a few large buildings on the market owned by the same owner that are fully priced with no movement to little movement on sale price.When refinancing, the banks/appraisers usually undercut your value to be conservative.