Looking for first Dayton property

[Alex Gruenther]

Hello, I'm looking for some suggestions in picking out a first property in the Dayton area. My wife and I previously rented out our house outside Boston since we had to move due to a job and at the time we just couldn't see the house.  We had a very good experience renting it out for three years, but decided to sell this summer while the market was good.

We are now looking for a property to rehab (minor or complete) to either flip or keep as a rental.  I've been working with my realtor for some time now and can't find a property that seems to fit the 70% rule.  I have a feeling its due to one of the following reasons, but would love your feedback or help.

1) My brother-in-law owns a custom home building business in the area and I've been using for contractor quotes.  I know he does amazing work, but I think he may be too expensive for a regular "non-custom" single family home and this is pricing me out of flips.  How do you find that contractor that does good reliable work, but doesn't charge an arm and an leg?

2) I'm not sure I understand what's required to upgrade to make a house marketable in the area. I had my Realtor run some custom MLS searches such as reports to show all houses that sold with CDOM < 30 in the school districts I wanted. None of them had custom features (granite counter tops, custom tile, etc), and thus I couldn't determine what fixes are absolute musts vs nice to haves. What's the best way to determine local market features that sell houses fast?

3) After listening to many of the BP podcasts, and reading lots of material everyone seems to say newbies have a hard time pulling the trigger on their first property.  Why would I want to pull the trigger one something that isn't going to turn a profit?  When do you know it's the right time?

I appreciate any feedback you have.

Cheers,

Alex