@Julia Lyrberg First I want to thank you for taking the time out of your day to reply to my post, it means a lot!

Mississippi is pretty small not a lot but start with DR Horton, Lennar, etc. most companies are after large growth cities though. not sure about Jackson 

Not the cash flow play a lot of people expect. 

Go search the topic "Lifestyle Asset University" here on Bigger Pockets and you will see a longer thread with a lot of opinions (most are not members) but still worth a read as there are a half a dozen paid members from our group who have commented on that thread.We were formerly called Lifestyle Asset University, but I didn't realize that you couldn't use the word University in your company name here in Utah so we changed our name to Vodyssey. 

there are a lot of great destinations.

There won't be a lot you can do, but I am not familiar with the tenant laws in NM.

Definitely an experience I’ll be learning a lot from.

Note that a lot of new construction still happens in Japan. 

I would vet contractors by finding local real estate agents that also work with investors, and/or a rehab investor in your area that does a lot of deals.

@Kana Watanabe I have seen @Christopher J Driscoll Designs for his ADU and they are amazing, He has gone through the process of speaking with a lot of GC's in the area so hes a great resource for all of the above.