@Matthew Paul, @Kyle Hipp : The decision between NG, oil or electric will be heavily influenced by location.

Any suggestion that this should influence the buy decision is not only foolish, but is dangerous!

The problem is these quick rules of thumb for estimating costs can get new house flippers in trouble because they don't truly understand how to inspect properties or estimate repair costs or understand all of the factors that can influence costs.So for example, a newbie might walk into a house and think the property only needs a 'light rehab' and only $10k worth of repairs based upon the rule of thumb provided in the video.Well, unfortunately, that newbie doesn't know how to inspect a roof, doesn't know how to inspect an HVAC system, doesn't know how to inspect electrical systems or look for hundreds of other warning signs that cost money.  

I don't want to drop the college education altogether, because having a solid understanding of things such as micro and macro economics in business would help me have a better understanding of the real estate market as a whole, and understand what influences the market, and etc.One more question unrelated to college: My ultimate goal is to make passive income off buy and hold real estate investments, but that isn't a day job I can start out with.

I've recently gone from having influence over a few rentals to over a hundred, one challenge for me is identifying and acting quickly as the new situations come my way.

Or scribbling them out depending how difficult the task was..Writing in the day planner is only part of my morning routine,  which is modified version of miracle morning with Tim Ferriss and Gary Keller One Thing influence. 

My county was 2nd worst hit in the US, and it has admittedly influenced my thinking. 

That was a big influence on me! 

I'd say this may end up going to the Off Topic forum, there is no unique RE influence here, it skirts on prejudicial and political.Implying that any illegal alien is a criminal (other than just being here illegally) is absurd.

If you use a cap rate on a residential property, you will have a false sense of the actual value of the property and what you can do to influence that.