You'll want to get boots on the ground in whichever state you choose, meaning your contractor, agent and property management co., and it's usually best if your going to flip in unfamiliar areas that you stick to one area and get to know it well, vs jumping from state to state, that can be difficult always gathering teams in every state.

Unless you have owned them for 6 months or more they will also used original acquisition cost or appraised value whichever is lower.For future reference look for fix and flips.

The lender was only willing to finance $130,000 or 75% of the appraised value, whichever is less.  

I would then have the ability to buy and rehab and then either resell or refinance and hold, whichever makes more sense for the deal.3.

Whichever :-D

You would have had plenty of time to market and sign a new tenant in starting whichever day you prefer after the 15th.  

As a General Rule, my Desired Profit is $20,000 or 20% of ARV whichever is greater.

In my opinion when looking for a buy and hold market, the Most important factor is your CAP rate and/or rent multiplier, whichever you chose to use for evaluation of cash flow. 

A bank or lender will lend a percentage of the sales price or the appraised value, whichever is less.

Bill Briscoe HI William,With Fannie Mae loans against financial assets are not counted in your qualification (debt to income - DTI ratio) so this means you could as an "option," acquire up to 50% or 50k which ever is lower on your 401k funds to put as a down payment on your duplex or pay down debt.