There are lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation here with many lakes in the area for fishing. 

Credit policies vary by bank but at the end, it like picking an auto manufacturer.  

I am direct marketing trying to pick up some properties for myself and if opportunities come along that I am not interested in, I will wholesale them.

You could pick a winning property and still show a loss in your local currency once you covert the profits back.

Maybe @Joshua Dorkin and @Brandon Turner could interview you for a podcast and we could all hear how you pick your projects, where you live while doing them and how you go into this niche.

There is no right answer for your question, you really need to determine your goals and pick the one that will help you achieve that goal.

If you are going in blind and just looking around for people to do the work, it may take a little to gather quotes, pick who you want, then go back and have the contractor provide you will all the paperwork.

They have all been tire kickers looking to buy at a steep discount as well or folks wanting to meet for coffee and 'pick my brain' about investing.

Looking at Cali RE from 2009 to 2015 is pretty good cherry picking, considering 2009 was a once in a lifetime type scenario.

. $40k will not get you very far in las vegas or any place west. here in buffalo, we have a good market. the prices stay pretty level for the most part. the killer is the taxes. then again, we have the winter issues too. not only does it get very cold which makes it hard to work on a place, but we have winter about 6 months out of the year.....lol. as far as your credit, pick up a part time job in a field that you have been in before. then, the job is a lateral move, not starting a new job in which you would have to wait 2 years before you could get a loan. second, take $1000 of that $40k and put it into a bank. after a month, go get a $1000 signature loan from that same bank, using the $1000 you have in the bank as collateral. state that it is a short term loan that you intend on paying back in 6 months. then, take that borrowed $1000 and go to another bank and deposit it. after a month, borrow another $1000 from the second bank, again using the deposited $1000 as collateral. continue this with as many banks as you can. when the first note comes due, use borrowed money to pay it off and continue as such with each bank. what you are doing is establishing credit with these banks and soon you will be able to go into any one of those banks and borrow money because you have good credit with them.