I have put together a survey to see what it is people look for in a rental home.  

Just a helpful idea for you to consider possibly doing a market survey based on cities, zip codes, and potential economic growth numbers for that area.

Paying 81k for duplex. 11k closing costs (including re taxes, lawyers, title and survey) and figure I’ll be putting in about 20k in rehab...ARV about 140k. 

The fact is that flood insurance is usually pretty cheap.It should have shown up in the property survey, if not anywhere else.

Perform due diligence, including soil tests, environmental assessments, and surveys to ensure the land is suitable for construction.

Then it makes sense to spend money on the inspections, surveys, contractor bids, etc.Financials - Review of the financials can be tricky, particularly when the current owner has not kept the books correctly.

According to a Forbes article, " a survey conducted by Wakefield Research, found that one-third of Americans are more afraid to start their own business than to jump out of a plane!" 

I recently participated in a Duke student survey detailing landlord experiences with S8 in my city, and I railed on all the problems, inefficiencies and contradictions in their stated goals versus methods.

I made a lot of money on those but a monkey could have done the same with that market.Currently I work out of the house and contract out rental survey's and market studies for various property management firms, investors, and lenders.If you have any questions please feel free to pick my brain.

It will help to have a name to go to when you find a property.Get all your documents in pdf in a folder so you can send them quickly to the lender, (DL SS card if needed, tax returns, bank statements usually you can get current ones from your banks website)Pay off as much debt to increase your Debt to Income Ratio.One thing I understand in Texas is they need a survey to refinance or bank finance.