Foreign investors ( primarily Asian countries) parking money or buying a 3 mil home for the kid to live while they go to school.. 

A lot of insurance companies do like the co-living model.

I would recommend focusing on good school districts where people want to be, which is going to dictate over average price and rent appreciations. 

If your considering organizing a capital raise perhaps you should focus on large companies that advertise on the websites to be doing a capital raise with a debt offering.

Treat this property as a business and factor in all the associated expenses, including mortgage payments (if you pull a loan), maintenance, and potential vacancy periods.To simplify management and make this less of a hands-on job, I’d strongly recommend working with a property management company.

They will have better recommendations for any title companies or lawyers there.

Will they "check themselves" from bad behavior when they see a professional company with professional services, legally reviewed lease, etc. managing their day-to-day?

When I first began, working with a property management company, they asked me to provide (and list clearly) the starter set that came with the house.

.)- Average days on market- Absorption rate- Historical data on rents and sale prices in the area- Population growth- Main economic drivers (industries, individual companies, etc.)- Crime stats... if you know specific zip codes/submarkets that you'd like to target, the best data will come from local precincts. - and more..I'd recommend remaining active not only here on BiggerPockets, but in other valuable RE investment networks that you can find - i.e. local meetups (meetup.com, eventbrite, BP local events). 

Hi Devin, yes my company does contracting work and we also work with the City of Birmingham on many projects..