In my market that generally means 5-10 unit deals.

In general, the booking lead time has been the lowest in years though (used to average around 40-45 days now its about 25-30 days) but our occpuancy rates are still as high as ever. 

There is no given answer here, because the whole property needs to be relatively consistent.Kitchens and baths are the common answer, but if they are passable and you choose to invest in them anyways at the expense of peeling paint (or off putting exterior color) and overgrown landscaping, the appraiser and tenant will be walking up with a bad taste in their mouth, thereby not valuing the interior work you have done.But think about the general flow of someone looking to rent: more bedrooms will typically dictate more rent.  

Which will bring plenty of other investors and general business to the area.

Credit score- the higher the best. 760-780+ generally gets best pricing for investment property loans with most lenders.

Generally I've found the rental market to be much slower in this area in the wintertime, so in the future I would aim to have your leases start and end sometime in the spring or summer when more students, families, etc. are moving. 

Keep us posted on the journey.BiggerPockets forums are a great place to go if you have any questions, want to learn from other investor's progress, or if you're just looking general feedback. 

In my experience, the General Contractor usually acquires the permit(s).

Nobody has a crystal bowl so you generally can't tell beforehand.

I understand nobody can predict the future but I just wanted a general idea of where people think the fundamentals are strong.On researching the neighboring markets, I also found the Oswego market interesting.