State average homeowners insurance rates indicate the risk of natural disasters.Information Sources for Data-Driven Decision MakingUtilize these resources to gather the necessary data for your city selection process:Population Size and Growth: Wikipedia's Metropolitan Statistical Area pageAppreciation Rates by Zip Code: Zillow ResearchCrime Rate: Avoid investing in cities on this list.Comparative Homeowners Insurance: ValuePenguinProperty Taxes: LendingTree (as an indicator of overall operating costs)The Importance of Local ExpertiseWhile research and data are essential, remember that general knowledge only goes so far.

Quote from @Adam Macias: Wholesaling as it is today will be a thing of the past.It’ll truly be strange to even hear people and gurus trying to make big money off it.The more people try wholesaling but then end up not having an end buyer or cancelling contracts or trying weird things like novations, the more all of real estate will be regulated and cause requirements like licensing to be able to transact more than just your personal resident purchase.Which I don't know why hasn't happened sooner.Here's all the states (in red or yellow) requiring a license to wholesale or at least have started the process:Credit: REITipsterI think licensing and regulation is a beautiful thing that should happen if you plan to be an wholesaler and do more than one deal... which is going to be the case for anyone taking this business seriously.Or even it being regulated to need a real estate agent to do more than one deal outside of buying a personal residence.I've had plenty of failed attempts with agents in pursuit of wholesale deals and I know exactly why, it's not because the agent couldn't find me deals, it's just not practical to think there's opportunity for the numbers a wholesaler needs to make a profit on top of everyone else needing to these days.Because the only sellers who truly can sell at a deep enough discount are usually those who ran out of time and just didn't do something sooner with their situation.I know many coaches and gurus will disagree with me but there’s no regulations on youtube gurus and what they teach either.If we look at the current state of the market in hot cities, the availability of online resources to the average homeowner, how many deals can you possibly believe are available at 70% of ARV?

So, not a good look.I do like that you guys encourage due diligence and 3rd party inspections to insure work is done properly.  

A lot of people are giving you advice without enough context as to what you would like to do other than get a higher than 3% cash on cash return and other than only putting down 20% - 30% as a down payment.Something that is important to know to give proper suggestions is what you want the investment to do for you and how active you want to be in the investment.In general, the more active you are, the higher your return, the less active you are, the lower the return because you pay for others to do that work for you.

Get an attorney and get these losers out then hire a property manager to properly vet any future tenants! 

Looking to learn how your experience was with going through the permitting process in the city and if you used any vendors that were a positive resource for the process.

I definitely would recommend each of them - very resourceful and of course, investor-friendly.

Once you start hiring employees, it's smart to develop it out so you can train them properly and so there is a documented reference guide.

Even with some people I believe are honest, I simply believe most do not properly analyze and manage risk, as is evident with nearly every syndication doing capital calls right now because they didnt properly plan for rising rates.Dave Van Horn however, along with his company PPR one of the few people I trust in the real estate space.

It's a little different but structured properly it beats the work, hassles and uncertainties of flips.