Newbie Rehabber/Contractor Question

[Alex S.]

Hello seasoned investors, just recently joined BP and seek a little guidance from experienced rehabbers. Thanks in advance... My wife wants to get into RE investing and her entry plan is to rehab fire damaged homes, houses with code major damage or code violations. Now the thing is, I am a licensed GC in Georgia, have been for the last nine years. I mostly do fire damage for insurance companies and I am on the contractors list of five banks where I perform 203k rehabs. On all of my rehabs with the bank I am given a time frame. Just completed a $58,000 rehab for Wells Fargo in 7 weeks. I use the same program that insurance companies use for estimating and I have a crew of guys ready to work for me at any time, also I have two full time employees for work that I do not sub out. I only say all of this to let you know that the construction part and estimating is covered.However we know nothing about RE. I really don't have time, but she has dedicated the last 4-5 months studying (even took and passed the 75 hour course) but still have questions and want to look out for any obstacles that could be in our way.

1) I have about $60,000 of my own that we will invest, so does hard money lenders lend on fire damaged homes or homes with major structural damage?

2) Not including the construction, but what other things should we be on the lookout for that may trip us up? Will we have trouble selling, since we have to disclose that it was fire damage?

3) How do we find these types of properties (never saw any on mls)and how do we start?