Normally an inspection from a third party is a great tool for a buyer.  

You can try propertyradar, it is a great tool to find and evaluate foreclosure deals. 

Go meet the neighbors and let them know your plans, give them a card, and welcome their call if they ever see something they don't like.If there's a lot of preconstruction clean up, then I go to Home Depot and get enough laborers, tools, and materials to knock it out in a day.  

So bottom line, Charlotte is a market where 2% is not something I have seen as very likely unless you focus on increasingly lower income areas (which is risky to do in general and even more so when you are first starting out) or potentially going mult-family which different investors have different takes on (while I do have some multi-families in different markets I really prefer SFHs from safety, tenant quality, exit strategy, etc).  

Direct mail is such a great tool that is not really leveraged by many people.  

I am new to investing myself, so I am going to want a big larger safety margin than most investors.

It's great being my own boss and I've learned a lot about investing, how to value things, margin of safety, cash flow management etc. 

Unfortunately, most of the really good tools for project management are either prohibitively expensive or years behind the times in terms of being cloud accessible (often both).  

I actually see the program as a safety net I can always rely on.

And I'm glad to have the tools in the tool box now.