You could have a few things driving the cost:-Location - if the house is more remote the contractor will have higher costs to get out there (gas, lodging, limited resources) or if you are using a local guy he might be higher because he knows there are fewer competitors -El Nino - the roofers we use are all busy because people are rushing to get work done before the rains hit.  

Strict rent control policies mean that investors can't buy a dilapidated property, refurbish it, and drive rents up.

If you want to know for yourself, pick one of those address and drive around the area so you can understand why. 

True off market requires work by driving, street view, calls, mailers or other ways of finding true off market. 

I was a little bit surprised, markets in Florida topped the list by a bit — I'd thought that, lower taxes aside, the huge insurance premiums would drive off would-be investors.Regardless, what makes sense for you is going to be specific to the type of investment strategy you're taking, but you could do much worse than looking at the cities mentioned above. 

There are other ways to do it - driving for dollars, snipe signs, mailers, etc.  

Always felt a little weird driving in there in my Porsche to jump in my  plane.  

I don't want them collecting rent and then driving both checks to the credit union to pay. 

Hi @Ryan Nelson ,You If your house is listed for $100k and the agent wants you to pay their commission for bringing the buyer, counter their offer with either:Rise the price to offset the cost of commissionsYou agree to the agent's offer and you pay the commissionYou don't sell to themHow valuable is it to you to sell quickly for higher (gross) dollar compared to waiting for a different buyer willing to pay their realtor commission?

I had a case when needed to clean the coffeemaker and did it during a couple hours, or organized the TV replacement with a new unit in less than 4 hours.And Bremerton is a bit of an hour drive but totally doable for me for managing, and will definitely have a local cleaning team and handyman.