Also hoping to avoid the need for any MAJOR renovations, as I'd like to get my feet wet with a simpler property before throwing a fixer upper property on top of my full-time engineering job.I've been developing my spreadsheet to the point where I can plug in my expected rental income, reno cost, operating expenses, and mortgage rate, and it spits out the purchase price at which I'd be able to hit my desired ROI of 10%.  

@Jonathan Jaffe I have both, Honda does make a great small engine.

I’m an engineer. ) he text me later and said “hey I messed up on the close date I’ll change this to TBD because we don’t know when the job offer will be extended “.

Check local zoning laws, hire an architect to give you an idea of what you can put there, once you have an engineer and architect on board, hire an attorney to get approvals.

If it is not in compliance with the historic district that may be difficult to work around but not impossible.They may require an architect or structural engineer to evaluate the building and provide a report.This could be a great opportunity for you, just walk in with both eyes wide open.  

I'm a software engineer (programmer) and a  newbie in REI. 

When 9/11 happened I lost my first engineering job, before it happened I knew my job was not a 40 year job, industrial engineers were basically hired consultants.

Was the inspector an engineer?

We recently ran into an issue whereby adding walls drew enough outside attention that our project got shut down and an engineer had to be brought in to provide drawings for the space (cost us $5K) even after the walls were already up!

I also use more search engines because there are many different MLS databases.