In my journey, if my wife had not kept her steady W2 while we were starting out then it would have taken us a lot longer to get to the spot we are now. 

I just got ride of a lady (april 30) in That had lived in a 2br duplex for 10 years, we had to go in and do 6K worth of work to the property, I made a joke with the owner, that it looks like our tenant took all her crawling friends with her, because I don't see any more sign of roaches in the place.

I rented to the couple that actually brought their checkbook; they wrote me a check on the spot for first, last, security and credit check.

Clean the surface good, then  make spot repairs, and finally apply a healthy  elastomeric coating on top.  

That is the sweet spot to flip and make cash.  

There are some ok spots in Decatur if you find the right neighborhood, but those won't be the ones dropping in price by 5-10k at a time.

I still did some painting and patch on a few spots.  

key=OVoxNVhwZnZRRlNyM1JJNFhIRThEWFJsMjI1eHVBI made some notes from the walk through:Curb appeal: House- yard work, shutters, repair driveway cracks, small porch for side entrance, some brick sealing / cleaning up wiring, new gutters, new flashing, 2 window (dual pain) replacement, door refinish, some trim replacement, some roof repair.Garages & Shed - Check code for add on shed (add on is nicer), foundation sunk and cracked in 2 spots, check electrical, new garage doors, new shingles on garage, some roof wood repair, Demo Shed and have firepit/patio on slab.Inside Home:Overall- Electrical (multiple types of outlets, grounded/not grounded), Plumbing (Galvanized rusting in most of house), Possible mold remediation, Roof (Seems ok, maybe new by some windows and seal some areas), How is furnace and where was air conditioning. 

I encourage to spend a few days in Buffalo looking for local spots.

But your base req are spot on!