You probably should talk to a lender to see if you could roll the repair costs into the loan and see if it would then cash flow. 

I have even made an inquiry about rent rolls and been told they're unavailable.  

Must I have the following things in place before I start:  Assignment contract for my area Brooklyn, New York with assign to included, earnest money $500-$1000, Real Estate Attorney or should I use a pre-paid attorney, title company/insurance, motivated seller(verified ownership), buyer (pre-qual or proof of funds).

thank you for your detailed reply.I've visited list source and tried to build a search criteria based on absentee, inheritance, pre foreclosure, etc but it costed thousands dollars for the list.

All showings have been pre-screened fairly extensively.  

@James Wise   well I am going to roll into town one day and your going to buy me those pastami balls I dream of those things.out here in granola land they would be not be popular.. but if your looking for wheatgrass and kale on every corner along with Coffee and a bunch of folks with funny colored hair then you should come out and visit

Maybe someone from there will jump in.Unless you're buying a big portfolio, one-off SFRs usually sell based on one of two things:CompsRent RollIn Austin right now, rent rolls have very little to do with the value of houses.

In the end, refi to pay back the HELOC and roll everything into a new loan on the property.As with the original posting, I too want to utilize the HELOC for rehabs since I am not able to finance that portion with a conventional.

@Josh MorrisYou can develop a relationship with a loan officer that works with investors and is knowledgable on getting clients pre-qualified. 

I agree with the point about pre-screening people that know they'll probably fail the application anyway.