He immediately can tell me if it’s a property worth pursuing and can give me a ball point estimate of what the rehab may cost and what the scope of work will be.

I'm spit balling a little, but you have a create a deal to get the outsized returns that STRs offered a few years ago.

I'm going to ask my buddy @Russell Brazil to chime in here as he's golden on situations like this. 

Not sure in your area but 200K should be enough to get the ball rolling. 

You as the buyer also have rights under fair lending and you should never be forced to use a builders lender. 90% of the time lenders drop the ball and end up not being able to close on time or their overlays cost the buyer the deal and in some cases earnest money.I would walk away from a deal that forces you to put $50K in earnest and use some generic lender who may not even be able to close the deal.

In my market, the golden goose era is over.

Hi @James Heller I am fully renovating 2 of my units on a 4plex I have in Golden Hill...feel free to reach out and send me a private message if you need assistance and contacts....You can get cabinets and prefab quartz countertops pretty inexpensive and refacing is usually more expensive, I've found.  

Oh, by they way, owning investment real estate is a business.Here's my not meant to be a political statement, statement:  We are entering a new Golden Age of Opportunity for Business. 

Once comfortable with an investment, start investing (not the whole ball of wax), but 20% or so into an area and see if it is really fits the personality and desires.  

Start cutting the favoritism, the golden net's, remove hurdles for small business launch, remove corporate favoritism and watch things correct themself.