You can contact some local property managers and get a better idea of the rental market.

It seems you and your husband have the ability to make a property more desirable and I would try to stay local for the same reasons you listed. 

Connecting with local contractors or experienced investors in your area is also very helpful for getting accurate numbers.For ARV you’ll want to look at comps; You can start on Zillow or Realtor.com but I highly suggest connecting with a local agent.

Even tried craigslist and local paper once.

Hey Carlos, I am local to the area and have helped investors with this.

I would recommend looking for local FB investor groups, most areas have them!

I would get on the phone with a local lender through a local bank. 

I started a new post asking people's thoughts about insurance costs in your local area and specifically costs to rebuild and other challenges:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/95/topics/1227051-insur...

I am considering getting into this space (looking at some courses), but worried that its too late, and that deep local market knowledge/understanding of buyers/connection with developers etc is required to make this work, which only incumbent/long term investors will have and would be hard for a new entrant starting from scratch to catch-up...is my hypothesis valid in your opinion ?

However, it wouldn’t affect investments made indirectly through a local company in Europe.That said, I believe it would still be possible to invest strategically to mitigate the impact of such regulations.