Hi Amy,
First off, congrats! Secondly, in answer to your question regarding closing costs - it really varies. You mentioned you may pay cash or finance, closing costs change quite a big just from those two scenarios. I can tell you this, when buying a home near me (California) with cash, I generally pay $1500-2500 closing costs on a property purchased at 300k-400k (so that's like half a percent or so). When financing, it depends again, but using the same property values, my experience is about $6-9,000 (or 2% or so).
When paying cash you have to pay title/escrow fees. When financing, you have to pay origination for the loan, and other misc. fees/charges.
My advice if you're nervous about closing costs is to speak with a local agent, and/or escrow officer/loan officer to decide how it's best for you to move forward.
As for estimating rehab costs, again, hate to say it, but this can really, really vary. When first starting out, find your property, make a thorough list of repairs needed (you can find lists like these all over on BP and elsewhere). Try to be detailed, don't leave certain hidden expenses out. Estimate the costs conservatively based on your knowledge from what you've read, etc. Now, add 20-25%. You won't always have to do this, but you'll be happy you did when you're just starting out. If your deal still makes sense, and you didn't underestimate the repairs, you get a bonus when you sell. If the deal makes sense still, and you ended up needing that extra cushion, well then, that's what it was there for. Experience in this area will help a lot. These costs can dramatically change throughout the country, and even county to county/city to city.
Again, my advice would also be to find someone already flipping locally, and try to buy them coffee/lunch and ask some generic questions about local costs for contractors, etc.
Hope this info helps at least a little bit!
Good luck!
-David
