Things like taxes, etc are no problem but when I do my periodic walk around our city and spot an unkempt house/apartment building how do I tell if the owner is well positioned for self finance, etc? 

I buy multiple sizes and cut to length to fit if necessary.

I decided to walk into the 3 brokerages which seemed to be selling the most properties in my targeted areas and set up interviews with the managing brokers.  

The realtor tried to convince me that it would be a great investment, but despite REALLY wanting this property, I had to walk away.Had I ignored these expenses and not properly underwritten for management, capex and maintenance, I would have potentially been in a bad place down the road when a major item came along, like the HVAC, roof, etc.Moral of the story is to know your numbers and stick to them…no matter what. 

Most designers work on high dollar and high budget projects that are created to be unique which is a terrible fit for flipping anything but very high dollar homes.

Welcome to BP @charles @Charles Simon McEntee Crawl, walk, run.  

The cabinets won't fit your kitchen, but usually they're just sitting loose on the floor, so you can look at the details a little and see how a real official cabinetmaker or finish carpenter did it 40 years ago

. $45,000 of the average person's gross pay.Facts are, unless a realtor is walking neighborhoods, knocking on doors to find a seller, the agent that is most likely to sell a property in the Buyer's Agent and they're all looking at the same menu of homes that thousands of realtors and consumers access directly of indirectly.  

Especially like the fact that you can walk to the ball park.

my quick 2 cents...If it went up $15k and you sell, you walk away even?