Different regions of the country use varying colors.

This really applies more to location than property design/features - generally unique in buildings is bad.

After listening to experts, the criteria a new investor looks for in a "first flip" house would be: Entry Level home with relatively standard design (cape, ranch, split, colonial as opposed to Modern or Unique) 3 Bedroom 1+ bath (I'd prefer 2 myself) in a neighborhood that has recently demonstrated positive activity where multiple sales are occurring with relatively short "days on market". 

Each situation is unique.  

The key is to find boots on the ground in the regional areas.

Some local/regional banks may loan on this basis as well.The use of debt financing in an IRA incurs a tax knows as UDFI.  

this is very much a regional question... unless your doing value add there is almost zero chance your going to buy a property in one of the hot markets for 20% under market because someone does not know the true value of the asset.

Pittsburgh is sort of unique because the bad areas are actually uniquely placed.  

That's just a guess as I don't know of any recent sale prices in our neighborhood and it's a rather unique neighborhood so comps outside of it are a bit different.

Generally, I've found that big banks care only about the numbers, while small regional banks seem to be more conducive to investors creativity.