Personally, I am walking the properties with a contractor who can spot many issues and give me a quote on the cost to fix, then I can adjust my offer accordingly. 

Then adjust from there.  

Buy my 86-yr old neighbors' 1 acre house and property so I can expand and make official my easement with a boundary adjustment that also gets his shop! 

@Arthur Voskanyan yes, a HELOC is going to come with an adjustable rate.

Lots of variables, but if I had to reduce it to one metric, I would use:  Minimum profit of 15% of ARV.So, on a house that we believe will resell for $400,000, we'd be looking for a minimum profit of $60,000.That said, here are a few additional thoughts:-  Obviously, not all rehabs require the same amount of time and risk, so if we run into something that is out of the ordinary for either (much quicker/longer or much lower/higher risk), we will adjust that requirement.-  These days, good deals are hard to find. 

But I can't get myself to just take a bunch of little vacations just to see an area so I've got a proposition for investors in a warm climate..

Working with the government will likely be a pain though so be ready to adjust on the fly.HomePath.com

They likely will show you 3-4, then adjust their list from your feedback, and show you a few more, if nothing comes of that, your dropped like a hot potato.

I will also consider using tenant screening that BP suggests (mysmartmove) and looking at the fees and adjusting if $50 each is too much.

The climate now is nothing like the climate then.