The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs.

But overall I am an amateur economics hack who is just reciting Ludwig Von Mises, I think Mises makes a lot more sense than John Maynard Keynes.

In my admitted amateur perspective, I think you are pretty spot on with the higher end units and higher end rents.If I were in a situation to pick up some multi-family B or even C properties and fix them up just a bit, I think that might help fill some of the potential gap created by adding more high end places.When checking rents on SFH, I like to check the nearest apartment complex to see what they are offering in terms of rates and incentives.

If you think it's expensive for a professional to do it, wait until you hire an amateur.

Personally I don't see any potential for cash flow with buy and hold in this area but I am an amateur investor as well.

We had planned to grade it and create a pad which would have generated a lot more value, but with the changing market, we wanted to minimize our exposure.Purchase price (off market): $595kImprovements cost: $76kSeller note interest paid: $53kProperty taxes paid: $11kTotal cost basis: $735kSelling price (in escrow): $1.2MGross profit: $465kI'm very much an amateur and if I was doing it for real I could probably move a bit faster and save quite a bit of money on the improvements - I used an overpriced civil engineer who I won't use again.

There are plenty of professionals and amateurs in every profession with varying degrees of integrity, there is just no barrier to entry into the field of wholesaling whereas becoming a real estate agent has licensing and reporting to a broker to encourage integrity.

One of the common (and weakest) defenses of amateur APers I've encountered is that they are cleaning up or bettering the property and/or the neighborhood.  

It may be difficult for newbies to identify crappy, BS contracts drafted by amateurs using legal verbiage thinking it adds to its validity or giving the perception of a "legal document" but I or any skilled in RE contracts or attorney can spot trash at almost a glance.

I paid my photographer $100 to take the pictures Honestly you can get an and coming amateur to do your pictures. .