Getting familiar with estimating rehab costs and rehab language

[Austin Mudd]

I'm in a mentor/mentee relationship with a house flipper. He recently has re-entered the market and I help him with the acquisition side of things. So usually, I'm helping by scanning the MLS for rehab projects and reaching out/speaking to agents in order to build relationships to have deals brought to us.

Yes, I'm in the process of reading both BP books on flipping houses and estimating rehab costs (will finish in the next week or so) but thought I'd ask anyways. I'm not familiar with rehab costs and want to know what you guys would recommend. I'm looking at 10-15 properties a day sometimes and running a spreadsheet, but usually have been using $30-40/sf just for time's sake to see if the deal looks like something worth having my mentor take a look at.

Also, i'm not familiar with the 'hammer and nails' side of things. I don't know jack about materials, construction, design, etc. I went to school for a business degree, so it's something I've never been exposed to. Does anyone recommend anything I could read where I could get more familiar with more hands-on stuff? For example, I  didn't know drywall was called sheetrock, so I had to google that a few months ago. Lol.