@Carl Edelman, I am all kinds of bad news on contractors, I have had prices double of what was estimated, I have had some leave town with a few thousand dollars in tools in the back of their rig, I have had several drunk on the job, and of course lots of no shows. 

HELOCs are a tool every investor should have in their pocket

BP has various tools to help you analyze your deals (rentals, flips, wholesale, etc). : https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators7.

BP has various tools to help you analyze your deals (rentals, flips, wholesale, etc). : https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators7.

BP has various tools to help you analyze your deals (rentals, flips, wholesale, etc). : https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators7.

Any guidance on tools or software to help out when starting.

So it gets appraised or essentially inspected to a basic point.

Not only this, but the sale of my home first gave me the cash position to purchase his home after so essentially NO MONEY OUT OF POCKET.While this was going on, I had to get creative with financing as my debt-to-income ratio wasn't going to work with a traditional Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac product.

BP has various tools to help you analyze your deals (rentals, flips, wholesale, etc). : https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators7.

If you are unable to become an investor yourself, do not worry about it, just make sure that you have the right tools in your pocket.