But just an FYI, there are MANY people jumping into this space and the prices are getting more competitive. 

That way I'd get a leg up on other offers and better price (the condo community I'm looking to buy in is pretty competitive).

Build by Monday, Sold by Monday, Fixed by Monday aside from Joel, the only competition I can possibly have is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

They had regional meet ups to share and market their properties and put these wonderfully complicated but fun daisy chains of exchanges.And of course there's a few companies out there that have a stable of properties (particularly the fractional DSTs etc) that have properties you can actually look at.But the current 1031 regs really make this unnecessary. 

Sometimes pricing is too high and sometimes when new information comes in the price will be adjusted up or down to be competitive or to hurry a sale, depending.

OR is a spot with little/no rentals better because you don't have as much competition?  

There are a lot of really terrible flips here, so there's opportunity to separate yourself from the competition, just make sure you budget correctly and make sure there's enough meat on the bone. 

Most often a home like that will sell for $75,000 +/- to a retail buyer who is trying to save some money by buying a fixer upper.Those buyers are your main competition for acquisitions.  

But, if it's dialed in, it can be VERY lucrative, as prices are inexpensive, there is less competition, and the price-to-rent ratios are excellent!

So I actually look for the homes with these problems in hopes to get a better deal and have less competition.