Advice about fixer-uppers?

I’m an engineer by education, a handy mechanic around cars & aircraft but a moderately inept household DIYer. I understand what I’m trying to do but don’t have the experience to do it well.

My brother is a professional carpenter / builder / sidejob rehabber. New kitchen, all new plumbing? No sweat. Build a spiral staircase from a pile of straight steel? No sweat.

He can do any task I can do in about 1/4th the time and 1/3rd the cost. And he can do another hundred tasks I can’t.

He can make a profit rehabbing. I couldn’t come close, despite a lot more available cash.

Which brother are you?

Rehabbing for profit depends on being skillful & efficient at a) selecting properties, b) financing properties, c) building (re-)construction, d) landscaping, & e) property selling.

IF you have advantages in most of those areas over your competitors, THEN you have some chance of making a profit. If not, not. Even in slow-go areas like Nashville there are plenty of men with pickup trucks partnered with women with real estate licenses who are scouring the market looking to turn a buck. Think you can beat 'em at their own game?

Look, I appreciate all the advice, but I think by this point it doesn’t have a lot to do with what I’m trying to do anymore. I am not interested in “beating anyone at their own game.” I am not doing this to buy, rehab, and then resell at some big profit. I am not looking to make a profit at all. I want to buy a house to live in for at least 2 years and then rent it out when I leave in order to just break even. If I break even, I will be happy. The only way to do this, though, may be if I am willing to buy a house that does have a couple of major repair needs at the outset, and needs cosmetic work that I will be happy to do myself since it would be a real treat for me. There are no big plots to become a real estate mogul here. Thanks for the different opinions, though, and I do appreciate them.