I would factor in other expenses as well such as water, landscaping, maintenance, vacancy, and capex.

This of course gets more tricky/risky if you do not have the 25% cash/rehab/closing costs and you are exposed on your primary heloc for those.

Do you only care about the interest rate or are other factors like being able to bid online, how noticing is handled, are lawyers needed, the ease of foreclosing, the time before you can begin foreclosure etc etc all need to be asked. 

i have to schedule a visit cos i honestly cant even estimate the repair cost (which i must factor into my offer) before i can even make an offer. i will have my agent make that appointment happen.

@Rahul Dilawri Welcome to BP....you will find this very useful and helpful...With regard to your question I will agree with @Reginald Pintang and @Dhru Das.Definition of 'good area for investment' is very subjective because it can be defined based on multiple factors such as Cash Flow, ROI (for fix and flip), appreciation rate, safety/crime rate etc.Of course it largely depends on your long term goals.

The most important macro level factors that I consider are 1.

Thanks Cerwin, I'll certainly take those factors into consideration.

But now there is exposed walls and bare flooring in that room).Yes, I think increasing my network is going to be the way to go.

In my eyes all the renovation costs will be paid from the proceeds of the building so it only becomes a factor when I want to sell?

The price difference between the city and the suburbs seems high but there seems to be a lot of other factors.