The quality of the jobs being added, and their pay, is not improving it seems.

Looking to do first re-hab/flip deal and looking for GC referrals that do high quality work and can respond/provide estimates quickly as deals often get bought up quickly.Thanks

As an investor, I rarely, if ever, consider Loopnet a good source for quality deals. 

Also, try to screen people on the phone, try your hardest to get tenants on the phone.

This is what I envision:Step 1: Find Property worth buyingStep 2: get financing for said project and do rehab to create equity ( 3 year term)Step 3: Find tenants that want to do a "rent to own" situation on a 2 year lease termStep 4: screen tenants and collect "money down/option payment" (somewhere in the realm of $5,000 and negotiate purchase price and get contract signed.Step 5: Hold the note for the 2 years and collect rent payments until tenant is ready to exercise, if they don't then sell the property for the appreciated value straight up and collect the equity.does this sound like a valid strategy, and if so can anyone provide me any insights into any potential pitfalls?  

Rod is right about the risk of analysis paralysis....Lots of thoughtful reasons on the board here..Financing of course, and others... but that may go more to financial and personal management skills, which do screen out many.

Once you get going and become more busy you can weed out those that are high time low return.Some good ways to screen potential clients.Ask for proof of funds or preapproval letter.Ask what their purchase timeline is.P.S.ADVERTISE,ADVERTISE,ADVERTISE,ADVERTISE,ADVERTISE

I would like to share a thought I had about the trifecta to look for when hiring a good GC for your flips; Quality work; get the job done in your time frame and within budget. 1st, I once heard on 1 of the BP podcasts (sorry I don't remember who it was on which #) that you can find those that excel in 2, aspects and the 3rd is "okay", but you will rarely find a GC that specializes in all the aspects.

In the world of craigslist and outsourcable background/credit checks, they're not that hard to find or screen.  

If you do business with them you wont have to worry about what neighborhoods to stay a way from as if your investment performs poorly they will make sure you are successful with all the guarantees and promises needed in order to make a low quality property perform like a good one.I have copied the link here where you can see that the lifetime guarantee is part of their program.