To set my baseline, for a sale price I need one of two things to be accurate and i'm having issues with both.Area cap rate - I have no way to accurately determine what cap rate should be for my areas.

You can reinforce if your 5k repair estimate is accurate, but know that if you want to lower the price farther following inspection, the short sale must get re-approved by the servicer.

I would really have to dig into the #'s do give you an accurate #.

Also, I find Zillow to be much more accurate and one of the best online social sites to get some correct facts and specs.

This seems to be more accurate and typically increases the count.The criteria I search for most often looks like this:AbsenteeOwner OccupiedNo Corp/ Trust1-3 bedrooms30%-100% Equity4 yrs ownership (Last Sales Date)Median Price (for your area)SFRThis has shown great results and pretty high motivation.

skip tracing is what PI's use.. there is an accurant product and a bunch of free on line stuff no big mystery..

Be as accurate as possible with your CMA.  

I have no construction background. Just getting into wholesaling. I hear that what most wholesalers fail on is the accuracy of repair costs. Where can I get more education on what problems to look for and how much the...

@Jamarr Lee  Fresh comps will be more accurate than the county assessment, if that is what you mean when referring to the public record of appraisal.Public tax records of a property is not an accurate value. 

This would be a gamble, but probably the cost of maintenance will be a drop in the bucket in comparison to new AC units.