I looked at an SFR in southeast Wisconsin that superficially looked like a good deal, but on further examination the structure itself appears to be a "prefab" house, i.e. the type of house that was built in a factory somewhere and then trucked to its final location for assembly and installation of mechanical systems.  

Not much unless they are a car mechanic. 

Mount vernon ny interesting city and that's where im starting , my home town. one of the cities that lie on the boarder of NYC (the 5 boroughs ) that will undergo (and is undergoing) gentrification because the vein of public trans to nyc runs through it. just a little background on me. ive dropped out of college 3 times , im currently chasing my B.S in Mechanical Engineering. ive acquired a decent job after years of retail.  

You have to have both a buyer and a seller that are both willing and able to close in order to create a transaction, and price and terms are the market mechanisms for equalizing supply and demand to create transactions across a market of buyers and sellers ... inefficiencies can occur when there are distortions in the market that limit the number of buyers or sellers or otherwise creates an inequality between buyers and sellers that cannot be easily resolved by the usual market mechanisms of price and terms.Inefficiencies can have a dark side, as eluded to in comments above ... if an inefficiency is artificially created so that a more sophisticated operator can rip off a less sophisticated, weaker, and/or desperate person, that may be profitable and even legal, but can also be morally appalling IMO ... this never gets discussed in polite conversation here on BP but think it is important to understand.

I am a mechanical engineer from Bowling Green and I will be doing my own flips on the side during the beginning of 2017.

At the time I was looking for something to hold for 5-7 years so as long as the mechanics and roof was solid I was gonna jump on it but I got turned down on financing by three companies.

But by taking the right precautions and getting professional help, sellers can reduce the inherent risks.The Mechanics of Seller FinancingIn seller financing, the seller takes on the role of the lender.

Could be a diamond in the rough - or it is what it is, a wind-swept farm town where mechanization killed the labor pool.  

All of them have pluses and minuses and there's no one mechanism that is perfect.

Without knowing the size of the house and what the mechanical conditions are, I would bet you're looking at $100k in repairs.