The STR is in New Orleans, BTW.

Never built in Houston before so take my feedback with a grain of salt but I'd put money on it being impossible to build a duplex from scratch for $125 a foot (including everything from drawings, engineering, permit fees, general conditions, labor, material, landscaping).Out here in AZ the builder cost is going to be $200 a foot at best, but add 20% on top of that for the client cost.

They trick is normally no way to secure them before you need the money. 

Quote from @Lee Ripma: @Sean Pedeflous - I have not personally used this company but they have an algorithm based rapid cost seg which is similar to the two others I have used, KBKG and DIYcostseg.com.

Just minutes away is not a good determination of rents.

Getting more than 1 aspect on 1 property is a bonus. 

A common approach is to include heat in the rent and adjust pricing accordingly.

Quote from @Kiryl Ulanovich: What is the order of events that I have to do as a flipper with the participation of wholesaler and hard money lender?

This is where everyone started.Residential investing is very forgiving by nature, you have to try hard to really screw it up.

My name is TJ and myself and my wife are investors in New Jersey.