I personally would wait till close of escrow for my assignment fees. secondly, for anyone in the comments calling wholesalers unlicensed broker frauds. this really shows your ignorance as well as you might possibly have a God complex. because a good wholesaler is a problem solver that brings solutions to a seller when a broker can't. but there are bad wholesalers just like this bad brokers.

., if (through ignorance) you ACCIDENTALLY paid too much, but don't find that out until later, then an argument can be made for: "oh well, it should still cash flow - if my OTHER analysis numbers were right - but, I'll try NOT to be ignorant next time".But if you KNOW in advance that to get a specific property, you have to pay too much, then my suggestion is to rather: let someone ELSE pay too much for it (per @David Faulkner's reasons)!...

Not to mention, if that area appreciates 5% so every house is now worth 105k in a year you now have 25k equity(20k down+5k appreciation, ignoring amortization) that is a 25% extra return on cash spread between 5 investments instead of 5% bonus return on cash if your 100k down increased to 105k.

The ironic thing is that while it appears that investors completely ignore these covenants and do whatever they want to the properties, I actually care about maintaining the historical integrity, and keeping the structure as original as possible. 

In this case I am starting to think ignorance is indeed bliss...

There are portfolio options available that only go off of the rental income of the property or that would ignore a "significant" credit blemish.  

Just because someone is a speaker or popular doesn't mean they won't take advantage of your ignorance.

1) Make sure the first flip you do will work as a rental as well as a flip - multiple exit strategies are always important but especially for your first flip.2) Next Step- More research on your specific property including the actual sales and rental comps in that neighborhood and area and the differences (location, finishes, sq footage, etc) between the comps if the range is 120k between high and low.3) Ignore the zestimate or at least validate it with a real CMA (comparative market analysis).

Again, it would be nice to gauge the market based off numbers, but we can’t ignore political, social and other economic factors that may affect the market. 

That means you either:  1) do it yourself, which is really a fun time, 2) pay/beg a tenant to do it, 3) contract it out - which may be tough, especially if you don't have parking that will be plowed  out by said contractor, or 4) ignore it until the city fines you/tenants/neighbors complain.