These days you can find great, whole house listings to come visit NYC for a pittance -- a beautiful, brand new apartment for 7 for $125/night or your choice if stylish accommodations all close to transportation for 4 for under $100/night.

Best to stay close to public transportation.3) Read books, talk to other investors, network, listen to podcast and of course, Take Massive Action! 

They provide the same services as the main hospital and should a patient require hospitalization they will transport you to the hospital at no costs. 

I know how things should be handled- even with a hard money/more unregulated lender.

Wholesalers are not investors  they are in sales and marketing in a very loose and unregulated way... and for sure there are many that are VERY poor actors. which gives the industry some negative light.You can't take what is usually a highly regulated and controlled industry and launch the uneducated mass's at it .. and expect anything less than the reputation that exists and is deserved in many instances. 

The migration back to the cities transport hubs is only going to continue.  

The commercial paper is unregulated as it relates to the new rules and laws apples and oranges and probably not a good example that I mentioned that led the OP to think if it works there its got to work here@Carolyn Morales  also take podcast with a  grain of salt... this are blue sky feel good Macro talks do not take them vertabim..

I would suggest looking in areas that are in close proximity to hospitals, universities, and transportation hubs.

Some are even trying to teach real estate and tactics and they don't have a clue either.The issue here is the type of training available to investors, most of it is from very bad to poor, real estate education is a business, an unregulated one at that except for licensees, full of marketing types who provide a product selling a dream rather than reality.

@Wesley Sherow a very real concern that is not mentioned is the scope and eventual cost of the total rehab.One of the most challenging projects I ever did was a rehab that converted a 100-year old five story concert building on Seattle’s waterfront to a storage facility.It was built and served as an ice plant that produced blocks of ice that was loaded in ships holds to transport food stuff to other parts of the world.This project and any major rehab of an OLD building carries much greater risk than one designed from scratch.In essence, the entire building is a “hidden condition”, which gives the general and its subcontractors a very wide lane to discover and charge for many change orders to cover the surprises they find along the way.You would be wise to use higher estimates for known costs and add generous contingencies for the unknown ones you are apt to run into.