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

You'll want to ask about their experience, read reviews, understand their availability, pricing, insurance / bonding, and how they safeguard their funds. 

Neighborhoods to invest in is a more subjective topic as that is often dependent on the type of investment you're interested in, your price point and even the type of tenants, if that's the route your going,  that you are trying to attract.

Purchase price: $655,000 Cash invested: $40,000 Sale price: $770,000 Purchase and hold.

Purchase price: $225,000 Cash invested: $40,000 Sale price: $375,000 Bought a large 4 bedroom pool home and flipped

Cleveland and Dayton can be great markets for high cash flow and low purchase prices, but you need to be careful when navigating the neighborhoods so you're not buying in a D/F class area where no property managers will manage and where you'll never see any positive cash flow.

The average sale price for all new construction homes in the Charlotte region was $488k as of December 2024, so nothing less than $1 million is 100% false.

The larger the purchase price the greater the spread you need between purchase price plus holding costs plus rehab cost and ARV.  40k projected profit on a 600k project is too skinny for me. 

Use your energy on something more meaningful.

In the unfortunate event someone passes away and the property transfers via probate or a will, that fair market price gets "stepped up" so no taxes are paid.I would check with a CPA, but this is my understanding.