For example, if a tenant chews up a few wall corners moving their things out and I am capable to doing the work myself what is a fair rate to charge, without waisting one of my contractor's time for a bid?  

Sounds like a very big bite to chew and if Ben is saying no there must be good reason.

You gotta learn to walk and chew the gum at the same time. 

I am worried about missing an opportunity but also don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

The Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods should help you cover a lot of ground in regards to what exactly your looking at when you are checking out listings on Zillow or other websites.As for some more data to chew on in regards to population trends i've found City-Data.com to have a pretty decent chunk of info.Good luck to you & feel free to tag me if you have any follow up questions on this market or investing in general.

the fee's are very high and not your typical 10%,... you might be bitting off more than you can chew for a first deal. they other thing is I would recommend staying away from condos for investments. the special assessments that sometime come along can kill your ROI. if you have any interests in some property close to Disney that provide great returns id be happy to email you some. hope this helps Mark

But if you haven't done this legwork, I would consider it very bad ethics, because their foreclosure clock is ticking down, and if you chew up a few weeks of that time, it could really screw them over. 

Am I biting off more than I can chew for first deal?!

Encourage them to leave, then the risk of damage, non-payment for time occupied, and chewing through the deposit is reduced.

But the dog chews up all of the trim, carpet and vinyl in the rented premise...