I personally run a best, worst, and average case scenario in terms of gross income and expenses and then make sure I can stomach all scenarios before I pull the trigger.  

Though it was written before the big real estate crash, the information is still applicable, except in terms of the type of loans he was getting.

There are areas in the country that doing excellent in terms of Appreciation.  

I like to explain it to people in terms of managing a project out of state.

But if you are bringing a lot of equity to the table in terms of the land cost, you may be able to get the bank to pay some funds up front as long as you keep your loan to cost ratio underneath the bank's requirements (usually 70% to 80%).If your dirt is cheap, you will need to bring the first draw to the table so that the bank is only paying for completed work.Typically we do around 8 draws. 

Therefore I spent probably 5K more on that house just in terms of buying stuff that a rehab team or PM company would already have (or the contractors would), even though I saved on the labor technically.

Also in terms of PMI for the FHA loan, keep in mind that you can refinance.

It is about 20mins walk from my area.I've been looking on listsource.com to see how my neighborhood was doing in terms of homes with equity.

There's a lot of real estate investment activity in my immediate and extended family, but this is pretty new to me in terms of buy-and-hold, flipping, etc. 

In terms of the path/niche I am considering, I am considering multi-units with a buy & hold strategy.