If fixed up and made rent ready, could the local rental rates cover the mortgage payments? 

It still was a good learning experience and made money in the long run.I wouldn't dissuade anyone from buying a HUD home, I'd just say, go in with your eyes wide open, get a good inspector / contractor maybe to walk it with you.  

So I have made the decision to enter the world of wholesale and been learning tons on all the helpful and insightful posts on BP.

You will be able to make accurate repair assessments and estimates which will lead to better buy-side offers for you and much greater customer appreciation from your buyers.Owning your own investment properties is one of the best ways to learn, but that takes some time. 

Property listed for a while, no activity, price pretty high, similar property sold for less than asking, she made an offer (verbal) the same price as the similar property and the realtor tells her that its a multiple offer situation.

From our viewpoint, all of her repair requests were made and she just stopped paying rent and disappeared.

@Aristone Louxz Congratulations - you made a very smart move, and at such a young age! 

I rent tools and equipment all the time, am a great customer, and have never received or expected a reward.

Some relatively simple formulas can make it almost automatic and will suit your needs.If you want to get additional features support, my personal favorite cloud based accounting platform is Xero, but also Quickbooks is extremely popular with lots of customization options.Let me know if you have any other questions.

As far as labor, Set milestones for your project and at the successful completion of a milestone that portion of the payment could be made.