I've never bought a house before, and i've never had an income to be able to be picky about my living situation, so i really have no idea what amenities to look for, and even worse, no idea what large ticket items to look for. obviously roof, foundation, electrical, plumbing - but what indicators of those can i actually inspect on my own and be able to see if this house has any major red flags? 

My wife and I are on our 3rd homeowner occupied flip house and do the majority of the work ourselves.After 5 years of living in a construction zone, we too are starting to look to complete a cash-out refi on our current house in order to purchase our next house and a rental over the next 6 months.  

I'm a full time Firefighter/EMT, husband, father of two very active and amazing children, and a dedicated family man.

rentals that do not need major repairs- at least to start

Those are just 'very, very rough guidelines', I'd say my last 3-5 flips average out to about $13-14 per sq ft - Kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, paint inside and out, one or two of the major systems (roof, windows, furnace, water heater), etc.  

A system could be a paper and pencil, as long as your system organizes a lot of activities repetitively which allows you to handle more volume.  

However, in 5-7 years our $21k rehab should still look pretty good and we won't have to do major rehab again that would hurt our returns.  

You can at least see if it needs any major work that could help you establish an offer, take a notepad. 

Any sub-lease activity would ONLY be to a traveling professional vetted by myself, a fellow owner and investor, and there would be financial upside above market rents for any willing owner.

The group has a website at:  http://dfwreinetwork.com/Just about everyone involved is active here on BP.