Wholesale timing / repair estimation

[Eric NA]

I'm still a little confused on the timing when doing a wholesale deal.

When a motivated seller calls, I take down their information, confirm they are motivated to sell, get some details on the house, and now I'm at the point where I need to work with some numbers. (I simplified all that but you know what I mean) I know that before I even waste my time going to see the property I need to know if the number I'm going to come up with is going to be in the ballpark of what the seller will accept so I need to give the seller a rough idea before going any further. Do I:

A) Check the MLS to pull comps and see what my ARV is going to be and make sure that all my comps are 100% dead on comps that I would use in my final number or am I just going to do a quick search and come up with a decent number but one that might be off a little?

B) As far as repair estimation goes, at this point I haven't inspected the house to make my final estimate of repairs so how do I come up with this quick number? Am I going make a guestimate by taking say $10 / square foot and then also take into account anything the seller told me that would be material beyond that such as structural problems, broken/old HVAC system, etc just to get a rought idea?