The biggest factors being, the ability to act quickly, by being pre-approved for financing/having your funding in place to do so, as any "deal," will typically receive multiple offers within a day or two of it hitting the market.There are of course, not an abundance of properties on the market at any given time, however, should you know what you desire to purchase and within what budget, I would be happy to point you in the right direction as fitting units arise.

wow, good job getting so many replies...I have been a part of 4 successful contracting companies and have successfully completed over 4 dozen flips with 3rd party contractors, It's not a cookie cutter scenario, if you're just starting out or in a remote location your option may be limited, but if you're in a contractor abundant area and you have some experience and credibility then NEVER pay ANYTHING upfront you must lay out your SOW on a detailed schedule and have that contractor agree. sign. and execute on that agreement at a 200$ per day fee if its not met.

This deal will likely not be a cash deal as 15%+ cap rate properties are not abundant, so you're looking for a 545k property with 25% down or multiple smaller properties.

Geographically NW Houston seems to be where the deals are most abundant. 

What this produces is an over abundance of rentals as most have a hard time selling and recouping their money after having to pay the realtor fees.  

We have an abundance of Real Estate Investor Association (REIA) meetings in our area.

We have received an abundance calls from potential section 8 tenants on this one but I can't seem to get an answer (call back) from the housing authority if they are willing to write a 5 or 17 month initial lease.From what I've seen on various websites the PHA's seem to want to do just 1 year lease initially.Does anyone have experience with this?

There is an abundance of different reasons why you may not want to borrower money based on an assumption of after repair value.  

It's close to d neighborhood; definitely section 8 is abundant.

I'm asking because me and my partner feel confident that if we put in the necessary/abundant amount of time, ask the right questions (like here on Bigger pockets), and do the proper due diligence into learning the business before/through acquiring notes; then we can move forward without expensive mentor ships programs and a Joint venture.