If you're confident in that figure, great.

Depending on what my plans for the coming year for improvements where going to be I planned the savings monthly for them.

If you're confident in your numbers and made a fair offer based on them, you're not "missing" anything.

My wife and I own our home, and are using 2019 to get out of consumer debt and I am working to learn what I can about real estate investing.I am a voice systems engineer for a financial institution.Maybe with confidence and time trying wholesaling or flipping would be in the realm of possibility. 

So I will use 80% (the approximate average improvement part) of $295,000 as the assessed value basis which results in a roughly $2,600 (some fees added per WC.)

The rate of return on your equity is usually far larger than you could expect to earn investing that money in other ways.In fact, many investors deliberately move every few years just so they can purchase using friendly owner-occupant mortgages, improve the property while occupying, and add to their portfolio by moving out.Now, what about selling?

Ours is in an area that is primarily summer only but with continuous improvements and a good rental manager our utilization is increasing into spring and fall.Best part about vacation Rentals, no concerns about evictions.Worst part, extremely hard to cash flow with traditional LTV rates.

., what are good neighborhoods to invest in) Lack of confidence in the calculated costs for expected and unexpected items (e.g., electricity, gas, CapEx repairs). 

Instead of working for 40 years to retire, I am now confident that I can cut that time in half by investing in real estate.

Taxes are based on the difference between your sales price and your acquisition cost (purchase and capital improvements.)You should speak with tour CPA and lawyer to best structure your business to minimize the tax impact.