1) Specifically looking at the midwest, I personally am doing a lot of business in Ohio. 

I wrote a Blog on this very subject.You will eventually learn enough to be of help to yourself, just keep doing it and record the prices so you can start to get a feel for SF costs.One thing I can offer is this website,I have checked them out and they are fairly accurate , you enter your zipcode, I just hate for people to be off by even $10k, that could be your profit on some projects, right?

Check the in person events and meetups in your local area, our online community is full of knowledge and folks willing to share and still nothing replaces the opportunity to interact IRL, you never know who you will meet and where that can take you on your REI journey. 

I saw this before from another person, but as a guest, i wouldn't like being charged $50 to use the grill and having to provide my own propane.

Perhaps the person who helped me last time didn't know.

I'd personally talk to some contractors, and local real estate agents, and do some more connecting on here to get some more opinions from more seasoned veterans. 

My biggest pain is mid-summer HVAC breakdowns in FL :-( gotta feel bad for guests. 

I would be wary of those neighborhoods personally

She’d have to feel comfortable telling the state of CA she want to pay them less income taxes while also telling the state of CO she wants to pay them less property taxes.

I have two questions with this:1. if I choose to take title under my personal name, does that mean I need to use all of my personal funds to submit EMD, rehab, etc. to avoid commingling funds with my flipping business?