If you can sell the house now and make a profit then the annualized return will be much better than holding the deal for over a year.Also - getting a loan is going to cost you money in closing and fees.

My profit would be the 5% discount they give me, plus another 3% commission when I resell (I am getting my RE license).

What is a a good "rule of thumb" profit margin to shoot for when renting? 

Investing in the hood is very profitable to the landlord not afraid to get things done and claim his profits .. but if your frightened to even drive through the area then you clearly don’t have what it takes to invest there .

As you do more flips, you will want to elect your LLC to be taxed as S-corp to save on SE tax of almost 15% on your profit. 

I have heard of companies that will deal with the machines and the service and take a percentage of the profits every month.

Now if you are doing a monthly profit and loss as part of your underwriting, you do want to account for that.

I don't think I would pursue beyond that, but arguably that is being generous as they are breaking the lease.

Closed on April 30th for $492,500 - netting just over $60k in profit, which we’re actively looking to re-invest in another flip or rental, whichever offer happens to get accepted first.

A quick conversation with whichever municipal employee makes that call should give you some good insight as to whether it's worth pursuing.