Not knocking your market, just giving you a warning that the market you pick will dictate how quickly you get your money back after putting it in.  

Once you have this team in place, you should be able to invest in any market confidently.As for picking a specific market - I would go after one with an increasing job and population growth.

There are plenty out there....you want to pick the right one, not just the first one.   

Many will pick this up and require that you change it back to your personal name. 

My main questions would be: how long does the entire process take from applying to actually having possible tenants to start picking from, and how do they determine exact amount for rent (the amounts listed on the housing authority site seem way higher than market rent, I’m wondering if I will actually get those numbers or not)any other general tips or advice is also appreciated!

Options are endless, pick one and hit it hard.

made an offer on a property only to find out later that one of the units was going through an eviction.tried to extend our inspection contingency to no avail to buy us some timeended up not being able to come to terms on how to proceed with sellerthe last HOUR of our inspection contingency the seller offers to try and buy out (cash for keys) the tenant the next day (he had a property manager handling the eviction and wasn't even aware of it initially).i get a (risky) oral agreement that even though the contingency window had passed, if the plan falls through my client will still get their EMD back the next day the seller ends up buying out the tenant for a bit over $3,000 and now we can move forward with the deal without the headache of a problem teanant/ picking up an eviction.

That's what I think a fair price is.It does depend on how far it is to the roofing supply store, how far it is for the workers to travel, if there's any rotting wood that needs to be replaced and how busy they are (busier = higher profit).You could buy a couple ladders, a compressor, a 100ft extension cord (14/3), 50 ft of rubber air hose, a roofing nail gun, a caulk tube a couple shingle removers and pick up some day laborers who know how to roof. 

The most annoying bit is that this is their biggest selling point, have prevalidated pipeline of deals that you can pick and choose from.

So how many have you picked up, how's it going ?