My opinion is that the block-chain is here to stay, and that Bitcoin will be the failure that leads to the block-chains true rise.Real estate has centuries of proven performance, Bitcoin hasn't even been around a decade (and is A LOT more volatile in that decade that real estate has EVER been).

I live an hour north of Dallas, and would want to stay in that area.

A retail contractor deals more with one offs such as home owner remodels, an investor friendly contractor is expecting to do multiple jobs and stay busy, thus keeping their subs busy, and will do the work for less of an upcharge.Once you have those two numbers figured out then it's just plug and play like stated above.

When it gets that low, it usually only stays for about a week, and then it’ll fluctuate between low 30’s-40’s.

Then decide from there who your going with and just stay the course with them.

You may be ripping up carpets and drywall if it's real bad but still shouldn't be anywhere even close to $48k. 

. * Look for burns in the carpet and on places where one might rest a cigarette, such as a counter top or fireplace mantel.Note: Cigarette smoke will leave a yellow tar residue that can be easily seen in furnace filters and on cleaning wipes.

Stay out of the big cities and try to find areas that have several small towns that tend to be fairly close to each other (say 5 or 10 miles each. 

Not sure what is underneath the nasty carpet.

The owners would like to stay in the property and rent.