A building from the civil war be completely retrofitted with new stuff and a 1990s building could be having capex like the water heater, roof and hvac needing a change.  

Ask the builders in the area what their considerations would be?Have

Quote from @Koshu Takatsuji: You may be having difficulty because the property values skyrocketed in the last two years and haven't settled.

Almost all people who are rich and make a ton of money generally behave the same way - they keep working hard and continue to make money.

You don't want to keep a Tenant that behaves this way.

If the animal is not well behaved, sick, at the end of life or they have more than 1, they are simply not approved. 

. (#4); uh, I mean who honors the lease and is well behaved.

Advantages would be having a GC license and being in the building industry already, having a close friend or family member in the building industry, having the land to build already, any sort of experience building that would make it more efficient for you than the average person.  

so i will be having a mortgage of 423K and an equity of 251k right from the get go. i did the rental calculation using a 3500 per month rent and i should be cashing positive $220which option do you guys think i should go for, keep using the money to flip properties or buy and hold one with lots of equity in it?

That's because the money is flowing at the moment and everyone gets approved.If they stay this inflated and the money starts to slow I think we would be having a different conversation.