Really, no one here can give you a good answer because even after knowing where you are, we dont know the scope of work at all.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, and will respond as quickly as I can, to not waste your time either.

The area is a nice quaint area, property is .56 acres, stately landscaping with evergreens and shaped shrubs. the back yard has a cute river/creek down a little slope from the house. walking distance to little downtown area and park, 2 miles down the road from the top high school in the state, and 5-10 min from department stores / home depot / walmart / strip mall / nice salons and spas etc. hope that helps answer your question. 25 minutes from downtown Milwaukee, WI. a lot of lakes in the area. 

I wish you the best of luck and am happy to answer any questions you may have. 

I believe @Michael Plaks is based out of Houston and is very active on the forum with answering/helping with tax questions.For CPAs, I'd recommend prioritizing someone who is an expert in real estate over someone local (and if you find one that's both- great!).

I wrote a post on how to find comps and calculate ARV that you might find helpful: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8814/68395-how-to-find-real-estate-comps-and-calculate-after-repair-valueTo answer your major concern, when you get comps that have a large range, there’s usually a reason that you have to dig deeper for. 

This is the increase in value of capital invested, and is taxed at the capital gains rates (assuming it's long term capital gains).So to answer your question, the gain on your house that you've lived in for at least 2 of the last 5 years is a capital gain, but it won't be subjected to capital gains taxes because of the "2 of the last 5" rule. 

To answer your question of local appreciation...

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question. 

The answer we gave to the woman was put as such: the name put on the deed of the house is the name of the investor that we hand over the signed contract to (aka the buyer).