I'd say it was money well spent saving yourself from falling into a black hole.

Its not easy  so step one is getting the know the area like the back of your hand and become a black belt at the basics which I outlined above. 

Make sure SS appliances are there (or VERY clean white/black appliances.. uniform in color). 

I hate to be the barer of bad news but financing you very first flip is one of the very worse things you could do simply because of murphy's law and if anything goes wrong with your flip you are still on the hook for paying back your loan and once you get a black make on your credit it will take years to erase that off your record if at all.

We snapped up a small Cape Cod last year for 140K, the listing did not mention that it was on four acres of farmland with pastures and a barn, we rehabbed and resold it for 395K, made 75K on the deal.

it's not a black and white answer.

If you're still in the black, then go for it. 

I was out voted on restoring the entire 4inch flooring in the upper floor of a cape we just flipped. 

I hope this doesn't end up being another Dan River type incident. Unfortunately, the Sutton Power station ash ponds are significantly (5x to 6x) larger than the Dan River ash ponds according to NC DEQ Inventory of Duk...

This just came out from Black Knight regarding the impact from Hurricane Florence.