The City has done a lot of work to clean itself up in recent years so you will find not only a lot of rehabbed houses, but businesses and store front rehabs, too.

In some cases, it may not be possible to purchase and store materials, but if it is, that is one way to protect your budget and avoid a costly mistake.The last thing I would offer for you to think about is having a pivot plan. 

I can find the broke and impatient all I want at convenience stores and sports bars.Something to be said about paying for a service. 

Quote from @Brendan Jones: For the homes, and or properties that you will use as a primary or a rental property one big thing I look for is infrastructure in the area, extrinsic value (I.e. hospitals in the area, schools, and job market), and the last thing is creature comforts for people (I.e. is a store to get groceries 1 hour away or 2 minutes away).

Franklin Home Store and Vacasa are 2 local ones I found with a quick google search and I have no idea what they charge.If you want to consider the self-managing route, DM me and I can walk through the details.

•On the flip side, a bank savings account offers one of the lowest interest rates and returns on investment, but it’s also one of the safest places to store money.

A home (whether primary or investment) in my eyes is considered as a savings account once you own it - a store of wealth. 

They make ordering items from different companies easy, and you get discounts from each store that has partnered with them. 

So by spending $42k I collected an additional $75k over 5 years, and then sold the furniture through a consignment store collecting $8k as my share.  

Again, the BiggerPockets store has some books on this topic, or you can learn about it by watching podcasts, reading blogs, and interacting on the forum.