Quote from @Piper Pepperidge: Looking to do my first flip, was originally looking at baltimore, but it looks like it's moving towards a buyer's market and inventory is very high so I'm looking for other hot neighbors with low inventory.ThanksHottest markets are inner ring dc suburbs, moco, nova, even Howard and Frederick, I can tell though if you are a 1st time flipper you will lose money, I’ve been doing this for nearly a decade and I cannot hit my numbers, I met with a flipper a few weeks doing 12 a month, has his own crews, buys off market, literally a full time business, even he is struggling , it’s a bad time to flip right now tbh. 

Simon, Here in FL its much easier for us because we know a few things:1) The U.S. is severely under supplied in housing units. 2) Tons of people are moving to Florida everyday which makes point #1 even more drastic for us. 3) Interest rates are preventing people from selling their homes, because then they would need to re-trade for a higher interest rate buying a new home, which is creating even more housing demand.So with this knowledge, now we move to more market specific data, which is what I talk about in the original post.If a market shows decent growth and demand, then it all boils down to the numbers.Its important not to forget about any costs though.

Michael,I have a lot of customers that live in California, Texas, Florida that have been buying in both Indiana and Ohio over the last 3 years.

Buying an interest rate cap is both temporary and is really only a prepayment of the interest rate for the term of the cap.  

I would read all you can about different strategies and markets for a bit and then figure out which strategy is most enticing to you (flipping, short term rentals, long term buy and hold etc.).  

Would it be cheaper to buy supplies and pay contractor hourly or allow contractor to do it all and pay large lump sum ? 

You will start to get the hang of it and put processes into place to stop or change the situation up, or just not buy the property because you know what they may run into. 

Got off to a rough start and the tourist economy here hasn't bounced back, but this is a buy and hold deal so eventually it will even out!

However, the fam member installing them for me is only a licensed HVAC contractor in FL so he's been unable to buy the units at the regular retailers that would regularly sell it to him (like Bryant, Johnstone Supply, etc).  

It often feels like either selling high and buying high, or selling low and buying low.