"Do the Numbers Work?" When an investor looks at a property to determine if it's a good deal, they are really applying some of their own formulas to rate each home. That's the easiest way to make a very complicated process EASY. So read along to learn how to create your own formulas for buying a great rental property. Your Formula Starts With You What is your goal? This isn't meant to be a tough question, but like most people that are considering real estate as an investment vehicle, you want to build a larger retirement nest egg. That's a fine place to start, but let's make it an official goal by deciding on some specifics. How much revenue do you want to make in a given time period? To keep things moving, let's say that you want to make 100k every 5 years. Acquisition Formula Every home has a "sale value" and a "rental value". If a home is for sale for 100k and rents for 500 dollars per month, that's