Bring a general contractor with you to the property and let them teach you how to identify problems and opportunities for improvement to bring the property to its full value.Go down to Home Depot and other individual wholesale materials stores and get a list of prices for everything you might use on this flip and every future flip.Go to the professionals desk at Home Depot and ask about discounts for bulk items purchased.It takes practice and a lot of trial and error at first to perfect the techniques to estimate costs.

The calls I made started taking their own path, til finally I realized that all I need to do is introduce myself, tell them what made me call and let them know I was interested in buying their house followed by asking them any variation of 2 questions...#1 are you interesting in selling?

BEFORE (That's my tireless and patient RE Agent Paul Steward in the pic who puts up with my investing trials and tribulations)AFTER

The best learning tool I found (and Ive read, studied courses and watched a ton of videos) was found on Amazing.com (you get a free trial) look up Jason Hartman Real Estate.

I used the trial version of TrueRent and was going to stick with it, but they are not returning my emails with a question, so not sure about using them if customer service is lousy.

See if they will give you a 30 day trial for  a set fee.DO NOT SIGN ANY LONG TERM CONTRACTS.If someone's product is good you will want to continue it.

As for investment property, there are all sorts of variations based on homestead exemptions.

So you are on short term trial basis with them all.With option #2, clearly communicate "new landlord, new rules".

Some companies are more lenient on certain type of  products (OO vs. rentals and some other variations) .  

We made do with a variation that was not our first choice, but that works just fine.