One of the stats HA uses to determine your ranking is conversion, which would be negatively affected if you deal directly after a guest makes an inquiry. 

However if in addition to it, you want the property to cash flow, then you have to determine whether this goal is met as well!

My personal opinion would be to work the numbers starting with the rent, factor in your expenses, and determine your operating expenses.  

You can contribute each year to match your earnings up to the limit( depends on account type and IRS limits for the year) at brokerage or bank IRA and invest in investments you feel comfortable with like stocks, bonds, mutual funds and cd's. 

Make sure you get your hands on the historical financials and a current rent roll and perform a rental comparable analysis to determine accurate, post-renovation rents. 

What makes an area a war zone? Detroit is recovering, but there is still has a ways to go before it catches up with other metropolitan areas. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t good cash flowing properties here! ...

Hello BP,So I have not begun investing but I am trying to research my market so I can determine what is a good deal or a bad deal.

Once you've created your list, start reaching to to local brokers and property management companies to determine the good and bad neighborhoods in the market. 

I would never make a mortgage payment to myself so I wouldn't generate the need to file any IRS tax paperwork, but I would also never file foreclosure on myself either. 

Banks use the LOWER of the purchase price or the appraised value to determine the LTV they'll loan on.