On top of that, many policies have become more strict (especially in the last few years) with replacement cost language because replacement cost estimates did not keep up with inflation for a period of time AND/OR replacement costs on many older properties had skyrocketed so it made more sense to calculate replacement values with functionally equivalent rather than exact materials.

@Robert Gorra - I've had a similar experience where I've had a really hard time with getting GC's to even give me an estimate, and the few that have have been way overpriced (ie, they want me to put in $20k of cabinets in a budget flip) or have had their prices go up by about 40% and still not give me a firm price when I try to nail down the scope of work.

You will have to have a professional estimate done.

The fee for this is negotiable, but you can usually estimate about 1 month's rent for this service. 

How much rehab are you estimating?

Great point, there's also two different behaviors that can logically result from same estimates for future inflation: raise lending rates, OR buy hard assets.

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.

For me the area I was concerned with was estimating costs.

This company charges 15% on top of any maintenance requests in addition to their normal fees but all I need to do is approve the estimates - they do all the work/communication with the contractors.Recently my PM sent me a few maintenance requests: a $1400 to fix some plumbing in a bathroom (clogged and leaking - contractor says they need to cut the pipes, reroute and replace some plumbing, recaulk.

We are direct lenders, meaning we lend our own money, for flips within approximately 1½ hours of our home.We walk through every property to avoid surprises and to confirm the rehab estimate.