Fantastic post Stephen.  

Fill in the foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

I think it's a fantastic idea.

another method is again to use an assignment of contract signed and completed at closing, paid out by the title company. 

Thus, if you are looking for a total return of 10% then your cap rate(noi/value) must be 7-8%.I try to determine value by looking at comps or by what is called the income method. 

Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

Fill in the foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

Another method I have used is to find phone numbers for their neighbors of their current residence and calling them to see if you can get a phone number for the owners or have them give your number to the owners.  

Mark Forest The thing about CAP rates is they are easily and frequently misused.CAP rates are only useful to compare the cost of cash-flows in a local market, and then only if each CAP is calculated using the same method {you and I could calculate the CAP for a given building and get different results}.  

Time to build the foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Two Great reads, I bought both J.