Can anyone recommend and reputable contractor that they've done work with in the past? 

At the end of the day, if you go through a reputable title company, and do your homework on the buyer, you'll be fine.

Neither of us are experienced RE investors or builders but both have strong management experience with reputable companies. 

The investor is very experienced and has a great reputation around here.  

For buying in KC and Indy, I would look up @Mike D'Arrigo who has a great reputation here on BP and has always been happy to share his knowledge of the areas.

Looking for reputable, and reasonable.  70% ARV.Thank you...

Make sure the person that brings you in has a good reputation and a solid business.

Look up the term list services right here on BP that will give you the names of a number of reputable services out there)C) Go into your local clerk of courts/register of deeds and look up the deeds transferred in the last 30 days.  

i think this is the best site for Real Estate for Networking, Mentoring, Support and the list goes on.My name is Menashe Miltz i just moved to South Florida from New York, i have always loved real estate i was working in NY for a private investment firm doing hard money loans. i decided to move down to South Florida about 6 months ago to get into the real estate market, I just started working for Mazor Realty established in 2004 with a great reputation with clients which was very important to me. 

Get a reputable (can't stress this enough) company to do an inspection and give you an estimate.