There is a strong demand for rentals in these neighborhoods as long as you have a quality product, a good leasing agent, and price your rentals correctly.

Perhaps focusing on quality as opposed to quantity of contracts will allow you to make better margins and move your contracts with greater ease.

This could allow you to reinvest the proceeds directly into one or more properties in Houston, which seems to align with your goal of expanding locally.Leverage New Construction Opportunities: I work with Neu Real Estate Group in Indianapolis, where we focus on high-quality duplex builds that are designed with strong rental returns in mind.

On the sell side, you definitely want to push the quality button.

Do you know where these people get quality work and contractors for that price?

The quality of the home surpass the quality that these other builder homes are making.

Even if it were new, they have no idea about the quality or manufacturing imperfections. 

There's certainly other aspects that you need to consider such as pricing, quality of photos & overall listing, is it clean/repairs are done, if there's tenants are they being decent to people during showings, are you requirements reasonable etc... 

Some contractors have insurance, some are 1 man band with no overhead, quality of work factors into cost, level of finishes.We created a calculator for our clients to use here in Chicago, specific to our renovation pricing, but even that is just a guess based on some assumptions.If you can find a quality general contractor, pay them like @Bruce Woodruff mentioned, and it will make your life so much easier...you may eat into some of your profits, but being able to rinse and repeat with someone you trust is priceless!

Managing contractors and verifying quality of work/timelines can kill a deal.