Red being high crime rate and green for near zero crime.

I'd feel much better about jumping in instead of buy and hold in the red hot Boston are market where I can't seem to compete.

If you can wade through the red tape, there are some great investments. 

Nothing, but pain awaits you there.2) The other red flag is that the owner wants to do all-cash.

I agree that there are some unsettling trends, but they are local and i can't quite get my head around their root causes.  

I'm wondering if any of you follow a "red line" of books, which books to read first, in the middle and the end of your real estate career?

Not knowing the price of cabinets seems to be a real red flag to me.

Before jumping in blind, I want to qualify whether it's worth pursuing or if it's plagued by complexity, constrained by red tape and/or has unreasonable capital requirements that constrain growth.

If you're already in escrow and financing though, expect the hard credit check to raise red flags.

Normally, I'd purchase the property outright and sell it myself but in this case there are too many red flags to for me to post my own funds.