What is the cost of the program?

Include not only the mortgage payment but also taxes, insurance, property management fees (if applicable), maintenance costs, vacancy allowance, and any planned capital improvements.

The cost of living is extremely low compared to other cities and you can still many many positive cash flowing and 1% deals here.

Purchase price: $390,000 Cash invested: $25,000 House hacking is a strategy that involves reducing or eliminating your housing costs by renting out a portion of your residence.

I'm wondering: can renovations actually help reduce insurance costs?

You can look at other recently sold houses in the area to see if the dollar per square foot cost of the one you were looking at lines up with what has been selling in the area recently. 

The reason they can give free skip trace data is because it's such dated and poor quality they are getting it at little to no cost.  

This can help you estimate repair costs for the property itself and get a feel for the neighborhood. 

Being a wholeslaer is having a business.You are in the business of finding and buying land/contracts for a short duration and then immediately selling them.One typical expense for a wholesaler is all the advertising costs to find motivated sellers.

The reason why is you will not be able to get an accurate picture of the repair value of the property which if you do not know what it will cost to repair you cannot accurately determine a buy price