My BEST advice is that unless someone is going to invest a lot of time in education and money to gain hands on experience, they’re better off investing in passive investments and leaving the “heavy lifting” to the people for whom investing is a full time occupation.    100% agree - and for me full time occupation means actually doing it full time and not running around the country selling some $50,000 program.

Knoxville has had some of the strongest growth in the country and I don't see anything changing for the next 5-10 years. 

Quote from @Jose Almonte: The standard around the country is for the tenant to pay utilities. 

You could house hack a few Cleveland multifamily properties, then make your way to Columbus, which is one of the top real estate markets in the country. 

However, I have spoken with other investors who also purchased it and are trying to use it in other parts of the country with the same lack of success and issues that I ran into. 

@Brett Synicky is Solera good to work with anywhere in the country?

Other winter weather states I like: Colorado, Utah, Idaho (research this one, many Californians moved there and drove up values, not sure what industries are there to support economic growth).I would be cautious about doing a BRRRR from another country.

From what I've been reading there is a general lack of flex spacing availability across the country. 

It seems as if prices in HI are pretty different in comparison to the rest of the country.

Louisville is within six hours of 60% of the country.