Once you find out all of what you have to have done, you need to schedule it as if you were building a house. You don't want to put floors in before they do plumbing, you don't want to rewire the electric afterwards if you have to do new sheetrock... you need to make a plan/schedule of all the repairs that need to be done and take them in logical order. There are some items you can have multiple contractors doing their thing at the same time. i.e. the roofer can be working while demo is going on inside... the bathroom tile work can be done at the same time your kitchen cabinets are being installed etc. Just always make sure (esp. if hardwood work is done) that you do that last before any staging. You don't want contractors walking on your floors before they have properly dried or mucking them up after they are done.
As for the area, you have a mixed area there if it hasn't changed much. Mostly blue collar some white collar workers and families. But there are patches of lower income housing too so watch your neighborhood. A good way to tell is go by the property at night and on weekend nights. Also look at cars in the neighborhood... does somebody have a benz sitting in the driveway of a mediocre house?? If so you might have drug problems in the area.. Are there alot of people hanging out in the neighborhood at night etc. just things to look for when you are blessed enough to be buying in your own backyard. Also neighbors, do they take care of their houses? Are the lawns kept up etc. These are all good indicators of what you might be buying into. Never hurts to talk to the neighbors too and ask about the neighborhood or talk to a local real estate agent and find out about the neighborhood. As Greg mentioned too, check into the local real estate investor groups in your area. I know they have them up there and that should give you good local contacts. Hope this helps
