For my money, you either go with a long time gainer neighborhood like the UWS (high but not outrageous prices, good inventory, perennially desirable without too much trendiness) or somewhere on the upswing popularity wise (right now I think Harlem and Washington Heights are hot, with lots of new development and businesses going in).

Our 2.4M Chatham is sitting. 900k Berkley Heights sitting.

Same with using comps in North Park or Burlingame for properties in City Heights or Golden Hills.

I am looking at property in Alexandria to Vienna and Captial Heights to Oxon Hill. 

That may not apply if you bought at the height of the bubble.

During my searches I came up with some places in Shaker Heights that were reasonable and also Glenville close to University Circle.

I have been getting calls from sellers with vacant land (Desoto, Glenn Heights, Lancaster, etc).

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Areas such as NoDa, Smallwood, Villa Heights, etc. are great.

For a high super-conservative estimate go square footage times ceiling height divided by 27(to convert cubic feet to cubic yards) thats the max amount of dumpster you  could need, then try to estimate the amount of many hours it will take multiplied by the labor rate you are comfortable with.