Your construction skills can give you a significant advantage, allowing you to save on rehab costs or even flip properties for capital.

Meet with the PM and their staff, even if it’s virtual.

Quote from @Joshua Janus: Cleveland, Ohio is a great market to focus on for cash flow and specific pockets have gone up 2x and upwards of 4x in the last 5-10 years even!

@David RobertSevere nicotine damage can require extensive cleaning, sealing, and even replacing drywall or HVAC ductwork.

I have pulled a permit for removing a fireplace, but probably would not have but I had a significant remodel going with permits and did not want hassle of him making an issue of removing the fireplace (the inspection for fireplace removal consisted of only verifying gas cap was in visible location, he did not even spray it).

If you pay more, you won't meet your metrics and will probably have negative cashflow and/or equity.You may have to make 10, 20 or even 100 offers to get one accepted at the price that meets your numbers.This is what all investors did BEFORE the Great Real Estate Crash of 2008-2010.

Because even the top agents have different areas of focuses and expertise.

In exchange, he gave her a small rent discount and even helped her relocate some of the larger items.

Even still, it could be said that I've still lost money due to my time on the tools instead of prospecting as a real estate agent (the cost of lost opportunity).If you can truly do 80%-90% of the work yourself (at acceptable quality levels) and you aren't sacrificing your time where you can get better returns for your efforts, then yes, it can work even up here in Canada.

i say that not to discourage you, but so that you have a realistic picture of what to expect.as @Travis Timmons alluded to, you need to be in a strong financial position to even think about starting to invest.