Joshua, as a computer science student you may have an advantage over many others in the market -- your skills at putting the great real estate databases to work for you sifting and sorting deals.

Hey Juhnae,As Bob mentioned the price per SF model can vary widely based upon the scope of the work, the location, contractors used, materials used, etc.So the best way to estimate rehab costs is to create an itemized list of the repairs and put a price to each repair.JScott's Book on Estimating Rehab Costs has a list of common repairs & prices that you can use to help you populate your list of costs.You will want to populate this list into a spreadsheet or software to help you manage this process.JScotts book comes with a spreadsheet, otherwise, I have a spreadsheet template in my BP file place that includes a Repair Estimator tool with a database of common repairs and prices:https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/drobertson/file/simple-rehab-repair-estimate-spreadsheet-formhttps://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/drobertson/file/house-flipping-spreadsheet-6-lite

"Our provider provides us with a monthly install to insure that we are offering you the most up to date national consumer and business databases."

I also dig up some history on the permits, enforcement, and board of health databases to get some ideas on the property and immediate area.

Costar has a database but they charge a mint and it's not 100% complete either.You have to dig in the database to find the properties.

@Michaela G.Once you combine records into a database then you can search using any cross reference available.

I believe in having a handful of serious buyers than a database of unknowns..Hope that helps.

I agree about finances -- Quickbooks is easiest and best.I 'build' my own relational databases using Microsoft Access. 

For example, there are no databases of properties for sale similar to our MLS, so it often takes quite some time for a buyer and seller to actually know about the existence of each other.

I'm looking at some cash buyers to add to my database.