remember your first home is not your forever home, it's your first rental so it doesn't need to be everything you want.look for homes where the bones are good, but cosmetically needs love. don't by pre 1960 if you can help it. you'll end up just having to replace all the guts like plumbing and electrical at some point. it's inevitable. look in areas where the path of growth is headed, but might not be currently. think 5 years out. look for resources like your local chamber of commerce to see what businesses are coming in and where. your city planning office should also be on your call list as they can help show where most permits are being pulled for development. follow the money. go to local investing meetups. crowdsource local knowledge and form meaningful relationships. those who've gone before you typically will help out and help you avoid the mistakes they've already made. onward.

Our issue here is we have to sell our 100% equity before we can buy this deal that is a distressed (some upgrade but the bones look good) new on the market (less than 30 days in fact).

Need some meat on the bone.

Deals you find from wholesalers right now will leave very little if any meat on the bone.

Outdated appearance, but good bones.  

I am currently shooting for a 3 Bed, 2 Bath with good bones and some leeway to transform it cosmetically/update.

I feel like there is a lot of meat on the bone here and would like to do something about it, but not sure where to start or how.Any advice?

If your LTV is relatively high (let's say above 65% - although 65 wouldn't be considered "high") there's not enough meat left on the bones after your lender takes their first position portion if the asset is forced to be sold. 

The bones and roof and plumbing are good.

Did you get any meat or were you thrown a bone?