First Time BRRRR Single Family Home

[Nathan Miller]

Hello BP! I have been diving myself into the BP forums, videos, and education articles learning about BRRRR. I have narrowed down a neighborhood in Ohio that has homes which generally sell between $100k-120k and rent between $1k-1.2k. The school district is really good so families are more attracted to this area.

My total rehab budget is $30k and my wife and I will be putting the cash down for the downpayment. So here are my questions: 

1. 1) Do you use a general contractor to estimate how much the rehab will be? Can this be done before buying the house? 
2. 2) How do you estimate the ARV before rehab starts? I know you can check out comps through Zillow, but is there a better way?

1. 3) When using the calculator on BP, do you want 70% of the refinance loan to match the total cost put into it? Or can that amount be slightly higher since it is an investment property? 

Thanks in advance BP!