Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookYou might consider Niche or Specialized Housing like student housing.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookDownload BP’s newest book here some good due diligence in Chapter 10.

I'd like to bring in a few general contractors to view the property to get some repair estimates.  

You can read about it here and hereSome pictures that i haven't post before: I admit that i did a bad job on estimating the rehab on this deal and ended up asking for all the help i could get from family and my..passive investors.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookConsider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.

My agent worked up the estimated costs sheet for me and it came back higher than I was originally expecting.

For water we estimate $50 per door per month for a 3 bedroom unit with no laundry, repairs and capx we estimate at 10%. 

It's easy to blame mistakes in rehab estimates or estimating ARV for failure, as those are things that you can blame on outside factors ("My rehab estimate was off because of all the surprises I ran into when we opened up the walls!"

@Lawrence Smith I was listening to a podcast and another helpful tip I heard was that if you want to get several estimates for a job, say from craigslist or a combination of sources, one rehabber would schedule 10 contractors to come and meet him for estimates at the property for the same window of time.  

You should inspect these when you buy with an estimated date of when they will need to be fixed.  4.