Not sure if my question is visible, but the numbers are super rough because I am practicing the analysis.

While I totally understand avoiding the analysis paralysis, it hasn't been too long yet, imo.  

Heres the numbers I got from my analysis.

My answers, using RE as the investment vehicle...and my answers are not just my answers,  My answers represent the "rest of us" you included yourself in:1 - If I put $100k into a RE investment, the face value would be a minimum of $500k...to start with.2 - Through analysis, you can have a pretty good idea of where the value of your REI will be in future years. 

Next, comps are important, but you need to do a cash flow analysis to really determine what you can afford to offer for a purchase price.

*For the purpose of this post, assume "investing" to mean "buy and hold large multifamily apartments", and "developing" to be large commercial or large multifamily (not single-family)*Investing and developing both require extensive market analysis to ensure that the area you plan to have property in is a sensible location.

Lots of experience and analysis has to go into that decision and even then the highest and best use does not often match up with the current or future designated land use plan for the city or the county. if that's the case you then have to look at what WOULD the city or county approve for zoning and the site plan and figure out highest and best use with return for those parameters.    

@Ryan Deasy Don't want to get stuck in analysis paralysis.

These parameters will help decide what kind of yields you are searching for, which you can use to filter down your list of macro markets.Then I would start by looking at the macro market's fundamentals, that is the population, job and income growth over time.After that, I would look to see what the rents and home prices are and how those are trending as well.I would do a similar analysis, but at the sub-market level for the metro area you are considering investing in.Other metrics that I find valuable to understand are household income, poverty, unemployment, and educational attainment.

I just became a pro member and I’m trying to master the analysis report, so when I do get my first property I’ll be more then ready.