I would try to find a market with solid fundamentals that is either near where you live, easy to travel to, or somewhere that you plan to visit anyway.

They tweaked the data for "fundamental factors that contribute to a home’s value, such as size, condition, neighborhood amenities and schools".

I think the issue here is that you seem have a fundamental misunderstanding of what the courts are responsible for.The courts (judges) are non-biased interpreters of fact and law (findings of fact, conclusions of law).   

The thing to remember with a GC is fundamentally they are management. 

I feel like I understand the basic fundamentals of wholesaling pretty well, but contracting seems to be stumping me a bit.

You could start with Commercial Real Estate Investing for Dummies, breaks down all the fundamentals of a deal and will give you insight where you may want to then dive deeper. 

I managed the entire project showed fundamentals for investors to make a 10% annual return on this property.

From their CEO: “fundamentally we have been unable to predict future pricing of homes to a level of accuracy that makes this a safe business to be in”.

You'll have opportunities to invest and learn.if you want to become a resi landlord that can help you understand the fundamentals. commercial development is a long way off for you unless you have a lot of cash to burn. 

@Hayden Wright higher cap rate is not always better, capture initial equity through value-add, reserves should be substantial and you will likely use them, if you buy off of a long-time owner be sure to budget for insurance and property taxes to be a lot more than they’ve been paying, buy in an area where rents and property values are going up (good market fundamentals like lots of jobs in diverse fields, affordability (wages can pay the rent), population growth, good schools, low crime etc.).