The second of two homes I bought when I sold the rental, I would have bought a more expensive one as the one I got was close to the university and tended to attract students which had higher turn over (though it may also be my local market).I'd also look up how to do a 1031 (I think that is what it's called, I'm not in the US) where you defer capital gains taxes on rentals by buying another within a set period of time.

There's potentially a domino effect in the event of an unforeseen major expense exceeding my reserves (mainly thinking in terms of natural disasters) affecting my whole portfolio.  

Business Journal (BizJournals) is the main one I read, but you can find others. bizjournals post about the new developments and changes in the city.

I didn’t know about the chip plant, I will look in to that.are those places close enough to Dallas to be affected by the city and its real estate or is it mainly because of the job growth in the area? 

However, if it's truly one of those communities that has very high crime and difficult to attract any descent tenants, it can lead to disaster.

Most likely because of their attractive flat fees!

That market from what I can see on the few trips I made to perform due diligence is really robust and such a pretty area I can see the attraction for those working in Tech or govmit in DC. 

Regarding the new construction, often this attracts more homeowners.

So far so good.I do feel like you attract more tenants by offering the W/D. 

the success or failure of every single step of every single project is on you.I've mainly been targeting off market properties through wholesalers.