Shawn,Great question and a tough one to answer.I have been building for forty years and covered just about every architectural flair.The most satisfying would be the true post and beam style houses out in New England.

Keep in mind, there are also architectural fees, potential zoning legal issues, city permits, etc.

There are a few architectural salvage places around Dallas.   

Do research and gather pertinent information on which architectural, general contractor, civil engineering, electrical engineering firms have several years of experience in the type of development that you want to pursue.

This include architectural, engineering, permits, and non direct construction related expenses.

I am an (unlicensed) architect with just about 3 years of professional experience that has just made a huge jump into the world of commercial and multi-unit Real Estate Development by working for a small partnership that is interested in my architectural background.

I like the red brick and the architectural styles there.3.

The problems I am realizing is that the more I search I've noticed that houses under 250,000 in my area have major flaws such as location and/or unfixable architecture (mostly tear-downs).

.#3 Contact Local Contractors for Labor Pricing / Hire a GC to ConsultCall local Subcontractors and get budget pricing for common repairs on your typical rehab project.For example, call a roofer and ask what their average cost per Square of Architectural Asphalt Shingle Roofing would be on a 1,500 sf house, with a 6/12 pitch.Note: Some contractors will be reluctant to share pricing without seeing the property, but tell them you are just looking for a rough budget number you can use on future projects.You can also pay a General Contractor a consulting fee of a couple of hundred dollars (per house) to walkthrough a few properties with you and provide a detailed estimate of prices that you can use as your 'menu for future projects.#4 Compile Your Prices into a Spreadsheet or Estimating SoftwareOnce you start to get a better understanding of Labor and Material costs you will want to store this data into a spreadsheet or software that you can use to help you streamline the estimating process.The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs comes with a spreadsheet that you can use to help you populate your own database of labor pricing and material pricing.

I've always been infatuated with houses, buildings, architecture etc. so I think I will get a lot of enjoyment out of it while I'm learning about real estate.