Of course I kept all the material receipts and paid my father and the handymen but I did not hire a contractor so I do not have proper invoices but only receipts...I probably spent around 60 to 80k for the rehab but even if I could fully deduct the expenses the capital gain would be still very stiff...A friend suggested I should reinvest right away and do a 1013 exchange to defer capital gains and another friend mentioned to reinvest through RealWealth Network.

Roofstock is an online marketplace and norada is a turnkey promoter.

Being a rental means you dont have to go with the highest end stuff and maybe you can source some good discounts on materials to save.

Do I have to have a complete construction document from architect to get a reasonable estimate of the materials+ construction cost (minus appliances, cabinets)? 

In other words, what if you knew as an investor, instead of putting your money into rental property where you make a 10-13% return on investment, say $1000 monthly on a rental property from an investment of $100,000 purchase, you could make thousands more within 3-4 months and just buy the property and the contractor ends up paying for materials costs and labour from their own pocket thereafter and you simply wait for the final proceeds once the rehab is complete? 

Not trying to discourage you from these type of deals, just want you to be mindful of the challenges you could face coming from my experience and the many investors I personally know.AssumptionsDownpayment: 20%Closing Costs: 3%Amortization: 30 yrsInt Rate: 4.3%Materials: 8% (plug)Maintenance: 8% (plug)Capex: 10% (plug)Makes sense: Purchase Price @ $160k* I hope this helps and makes sense.

So far my interactions with wholesalers haven’t been super awesome: ARV is way off, rehab costs are materials only, etc.

You'll find a ton of great material and people here.In terms of your RE strategy, are you planning to continue to be a landlord and buy SFH and residential multi-s, or do you want to diversify into other RE investments such as syndications for instance?

Have done lots of reading of online material, books, etc. and simply need some human contact. 

3)  What good information material would you recommend to compare all the markets state to state?