Typically, a high owner-occupied area is more stable, because people don't move so much and are more house proud than tenants.

My father owns a construction company in my hometown, so I have spent my fair share of summers swinging hammers and digging holes.I am employed as a full time engineer and I am looking towards real estate to supplement my income and build a more stable future for my fiancé and myself in this exciting stages of our lives. 

Are there off the shelf products that are very strong and can suck the order?

Look in the middle of the country at secondary and tertiary markets with stable and growing economies that are relatively diverse and not at the mercy of one large corporation. 

I'm assuming most commercial lenders would require stable long term leases in order to consider it part of NOI and an increase in value?  

Maybe switch to stable fund while this going on. 

In that situation, if the tenant does something that results in a hard pull of his credit and reduces the average age of his credit, such as co-signing on a new auto loan, then his credit can take a temporary tumble.I would vet the tenant through former landlords and make sure that his income is stable and meets your criteria before renting.

I talked about this in my blog post US Cities for Turnkey InvestmentI would consider cities that have grown or stayed stable at least, to avoid pressure stock of vacant houses hanging on that rental market.

Since you are not as concerned about spread for a fix and flip you really just need to focus that your market is either stable or in an upswing, obviously the latter is better. 

If you call the store manager of any big box store and tell him your business is rehabbing apartments and you would like to start a purchase arrangement with his store, you can expect 10-15% discounts off of the shelf price.