The vast majority of the novices who venture in ignorantly chasing that "BIG $" most often get DESTROYED! 

Quote from @Brandon Croucier: Hi Kathy, at the end of the day the mortgage industry is so vast & wide it's essentially like trying to navigate the Sahara Desert.I highly recommend working with an experienced mortgage broker who knows the ins and outs of the industry to place you into the most competitive product for you.More times than not, people save money working with a small shop broker.Kathy,I wanted to revisit this to offer a a tad bit more and Brandon above is correct.

The vast majority of contractors won't want to give bids on properties while under contract unless they have a relationship with that person from prior jobs.

That is the most realistic and viable path for the vast majority.

It is pricey and a little hard to make the numbers in my experience, but it is a vast area (S FL in general) so I am sure there are pockets where it makes sense. 

@Michael Lyons If interested i can give you a literal block by block A/B/C class breakdown of Whitman or Pennsport, it’s not as vastly as different as the block by block breakdown as neighboring areas, but there are still some blocks that are definitely better than others.

We're largely looking at value add projects (aka BRRRR **cringe**) so that the vast majority of capital is coming out once a refi is done.Not vanilla, obviously.

=) We've been listening to a number of BP podcasts, YouTube videos, and have been expanding our library of BP books.

it looks like you have found out - correctly - that the vast, vast majority of properties for sale aren't good deals from an investment perspective. 

., to be honest, if you can't simply explain it in a post, you have already lost a vast majority of investors.