You either have a buyer's agent representing you (for free) or you have the listing agent representing both sides (but probably representing the seller more... its human nature). 

I definitely learned not to let a so called handyman do ANY repairs while living there after he hit the natural gasoline with a sawzall and moved...

Get a couple more quotes, plus compare material prices with some suppliers in the area  It’s hard to determine whether the price is fair because the nature of the project and the sizes are unknown.

School, for some, was the only possible education.Today, if you have a smartphone or access to the internet, it's almost free.There have always been bookstores and libraries if course, but never had so much info been literally in the palm of our hand.It's a double edge said sword, though, because with that information we naturally have a lot of bad info to decipher or sift through.

Neither do I laugh at their jokes or anything else in that nature.

It does not make adjustments for natural neighborhood breaks.As someone new, the key is to learn the area you want to invest in. 

Eliminating natural light in a bathroom is a major mistake.

Seems like the definition of buy n hold RE regardless of if relying on cash flow or appreciation.Cash flow, in addition to having the actual cash flow reduced such as Las Vegas and Detroit (as two of the worst examples) in the Great Recession (GR), there are other ways to loose money including the loss due to not keeping up with inflation (most of the cheap Midwest areas), natural disasters (could be anywhere but lately it has been South exposed coastal via hurricanes and tropical storms (Texas, Loisianana, Mississippi, Alabama), Ca via fires (Paradise, San Diego twice, Ventura area), and tornadoes (middle of the country), and large beyond planned cap expense items (could happen just about anywhere but good due diligence and conservative cap ex estimates can reduce the risk).We had RE duplex (STR) in Gulf Shores Alabama that we sold after it was hit by 2 hurricanes. 

this is my dilemma recently; eyeing for two deals at little Italy and Danforth area; one is a detached full gut on Danforth which is listed at 1.5; I will probably offer for 1.3 to see if I get it, and need 700k cash to do a full rebuild for 18 to 24 months then sell hopefully at 2.6-7; the other opportunity is at little Italy at about 1.3 purchase price for a semi and do a duplex conversion for 250k reno and hold for 5 years for natural appreciation; which one should I do?  

If water, sewer, and natural gas available at the street?