Also, how can you strereo type me and my ability to construct a deal simply because it’s my first REI deal.

Disclaimer: still new to this, but in the same boat as you with trying to determine rehab cost (not flipping though).I would contact a general contractor and see if they can give you a rough estimate for free. $85-90/sq ft homes are about what my area is going for but older homes with larger lots.

I'm just trying to determine if I have a rental property I should hold on to, or if I should I sell it and make the $20k in equity while I can and invest that money somewhere else.

After wholesalers determine it's a good deal then they double close on the property.

I agree with @Jeremy Taggart on simply selling and taking the tax free gains. 

It is impractical to change the engineer at this point.I think this is a pretty common problem, very much like being presented a change order (on a time and material basis) by a General Contractor, except it is much hard to determine the time needed for an engineer to finish his job.How do you deal with such a situation?

Within 8 months the flip was bought, rehabbed and resold for a profit (taxes yet to be determined).

Any days that the unit is vacant, you are allowed to take her to small claims for.In your situation, first you need to determine if unit is abandoned or not.

While location plays a huge role in determining if numbers work out for any deal, I like to keep an open mind.

@Sherry Gao Quinn was asking if it is a landlord friendly state, not how to determine if a neighborhood is a good area.