With a budget of $300K-$400K, you could potentially find single-family homes or small multi-units in those areas.I'd recommend researching rental demand near universities like Duke or NC State or even checking out neighborhoods with strong job growth near tech hubs.

I'll take any and all advice any of you have, but the two things I'm looking for specifically are: what sites, services, and/or software you use and recommend for sceening and managing tenants? 

@Mattin Hosh first, most cities in Metro Detroit have some type of rental property inspection every 2-3 years.It's not really a big deal 99% of the time - especially for owners who are NOT slumlords:)Also, a quick Google search will show that several states/cities are passing/considering similar legislation.One of the biggest mistakes we see newer investors making is NOT properly understanding Neighborhood/Property/Tenant Classes and naively assuming that any rental they buy will deliver Class A results.Read our copy & paste thoughts below and DM us if you'd like to dicuss more about the Detroit market:)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Any recommendations for free tools to do market research?

If you’re leaning toward an LLC, I can recommend some local options to help set it up.

At that point, he won’t receive any further compensation, and I’ll seriously consider replacing him.By the way, do you have any recommendations for good eviction lawyers?"

Third, I'll check in my resources to see if I can recommend an agent.

Do you have any particular meetups you especially recommend?

What service/provider might you recommend.

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.