I am attracted to this route because the property can be mine for $1,000 cash, and the rehab budget would put me at retail price, *AND* I will have the peace of mind of knowing that I have essentially a brand new house.

@Erik WhitingCan you tell me what brand meters you had installed.  

Developer build brand new houses on same street as the duplexes mentioned below.

Any suggestions for a brand new investor?

Footprints are shrinking for soft goods, but gyms, trampoline parks and other "fun" are backfilling a lot of those boxes.All that said, there is pretty strong data indicating that DTC brands begin to struggle with customer acquisition costs around $10MM annual sales if they don't have brick and mortar stores.

Buy a brand new Mustang of F150 like everyone else. 

Brand new builds still need to inspect for construction and design issues and as you get into older age buildings then lots more things to watch out for.

I am brand new to investing with no property currently. 

I'm brand new learning this stuff and I'm already getting that tax stuff is massively important.

I haven't purchased investor leads so I can't comment on the cost per lead, I've built relationships with all of mine through networking, branding, marketing, and so forth.