Clean the surface good, then  make spot repairs, and finally apply a healthy  elastomeric coating on top.  

That is the sweet spot to flip and make cash.  

There are some ok spots in Decatur if you find the right neighborhood, but those won't be the ones dropping in price by 5-10k at a time.

I still did some painting and patch on a few spots.  

key=OVoxNVhwZnZRRlNyM1JJNFhIRThEWFJsMjI1eHVBI made some notes from the walk through:Curb appeal: House- yard work, shutters, repair driveway cracks, small porch for side entrance, some brick sealing / cleaning up wiring, new gutters, new flashing, 2 window (dual pain) replacement, door refinish, some trim replacement, some roof repair.Garages & Shed - Check code for add on shed (add on is nicer), foundation sunk and cracked in 2 spots, check electrical, new garage doors, new shingles on garage, some roof wood repair, Demo Shed and have firepit/patio on slab.Inside Home:Overall- Electrical (multiple types of outlets, grounded/not grounded), Plumbing (Galvanized rusting in most of house), Possible mold remediation, Roof (Seems ok, maybe new by some windows and seal some areas), How is furnace and where was air conditioning. 

I encourage to spend a few days in Buffalo looking for local spots.

But your base req are spot on!

Investing in your own home town from a distance bears little resemblance to picking a spot on the map and throwing a dart (i.e. what seems to pass for a lot of "out-of-state investing"). 

I talk to investors on a daily basis and most are going to Listsource or propstsream to a source the list of properties based on whatever their sweet spot or criteria are.

I go into detail about how to spot these fake lenders in other posts I've written, like in my response under this thread here: How do I spot scam lenders?