You gotta look every day and start getting familiar with current sales, pending sales, sales of completed rehab homes, etc. 

all i need is for you to continue to be beautiful folks. i just watch and take notes and i get everything i need. books are great, but cant compare to every day people going through the motions and so willing to share there knowledge. who needs gurus when you got good hearted hustlers??

Just like hotsheets if you check everyday you will soon know market rents for each area.  

@Zachary Metler I drive around Ypsi everyday working on properties for my boss.

You don't show up on site everyday and give your two cents, there's not really any hands-on learning. 

Hope y'all are having a great day with family today (everyday actually).I'm currently looking for duplex to house hack, and the ones that my agent sent me, all the units are currently leased.Does that mean I have to wait till later to buy one of those properties or how would that work?

you need to find that thing, that system that will give the leg up. but once you get in the habit of studying numbers you will find to look for "value" and align your goals with that. 20 ways to skin a cat. i think alooooot of people looking for that cat you seek. but your driving so many cats everyday. trust!!!

What can you do every day (or week) to find these peopleFor your money, where will it come from?

To answer your question there is no way to guarantee build price other than to have all pricing locked i with subcontractors etc prior to going under contract,  This is common practice on all "Hard bid" projects and is something we deal with every day on our larger commercial projects. 

Every administrative court heres this arguement almost every day, and it doesnt go anywhere.