It’s more so the amount of competition and offers being place on properties I’m looking at.

Construction skills, loan skills, financing skills, legal understanding, real estate transaction skills, etc all greatly help.Personally I wouldn't deal with someone that has no money, lacks experience, or some kind of resources. 

So I think it's pretty much like getting any mortgage, but there is a definite lack of communication or clarity from the selling bank (VA).

Rental demand is high there, but so are home buyers looking to purchase properties there which makes it a bit of a competitive market for sales.

Hostaway's lack of transparency in their pricing makes them pretty hard to recommend to anyone since these types of "custom" pricing schemes are often used as a means of upcharging new customers. 

if you have limited resources, you need to plan accordingly to your budget.if your budget is Zero, you need to use free marketing methods like calling all FSBO in your area and landlords with houses that are outdatedif your budget is $250 you can use other strategies like skip tracing, driving for dollars, cold calling or door knockingif you have a larger budget you can do Direct mailing campaigns but to hard to find list, where the competition is small Adjust your marketing based on your monthly budget and be consistent for 3 to 6 months to see resultsIf you don't have lots of capital, consistency if the key over time

There is a need but not much competition. 

Due to the fact that this neighborhood is lacking comps and a severe lack of development, Being conservative on size and cost there is more planning to be done. 2130 sqft down with an additional 565 sqft up.

However, JC as you know is overrun with new build multifamily options so there is a lot of competition in Hudson Co whereas the suburbs there is none.It really depends if you need the money to buy a house out there and want to plant roots.

Research local rental rates to set a competitive price.