If possible, agree to buy the materials yourself and have the contractor pick them up. 

Once you pick your strategy then hone in on that with books and podcast.

So do not give up if this what you are determined to do. 

Hi everyone, When determining what real estate agent to work with, what kind of questions do you ask them to see if they would be a good fit?

How can I determine a general idea of repair/replacement without having someone come out?

I take a seat and at some point they do a roll call to determine which parties are present.

What criteria do you use to decide whether to keep the current structure on the property or to knock it down and build a new house?

. - I decided I didn't want to mess with it because Im starting another project with higher potential return.Now, as an example, I look at this one:https://www.zillow.com/homes/63-GRANVUE-DRIVE-BELL...Its on the Auction block, if I picked it up for 2 or 3k, and sold it for 10k to someone else who wants to work with it, essentially a wholesale deal, and didn't spend any money fixing it up, and agreed to max 1k realtor fees if any, I might make some money on it.If you go to our county tax assessor site, and search '63 Granvue', youll see that 1) the total taxes for 2018 are $2981.38, and 2) they are paid by the bank already for 2018 http://www.co.st-clair.il.us/Pages/parcel.aspxWhat I am asking is - if I bought this at auction, and sold it within a couple of months as a property someone else can rehab, how would the property taxes work / what would I end up paying? 

Just pick up the phone and start calling around.

I haven't reached that step yet, but there are a few local investors I plan to contact if I determine this to be a good deal.