I’ve been interested in Real Estate since college when I took a RE economics class and fell in love with the opportunity it presented.

Not to mention (since you're in Little Rock) how you look at economic vacancy between, let's say the River Market and something off of Mabelvale Pike.What's more material for you (and something that's fairly constant) is the amortization table that your lender will use. 

@Daniel Koch We went directly to commercial as the economics are better (and less inconvenience).

One thing I wanted to throw in there is considering reinvesting the profits into an Economic Opportunity Zone.

We are nearing the top of the economic cycle. 

And we just like real estate...We live in the center of the Adirondacks in Northern NY, a beautiful but slightly economically depressed area.

Two of the safe harbors that can help you deduct improvements are below:1) 2500 de minimis safe harbor.the safe harbor applies to amounts paid during the tax year to acquire or produce what the regs call a “unit of property” (UOP), you must meet these requirements: (1)you need to have written accounting procedures treating as an expense for non-tax purposes amounts paid for property costing less than a specified dollar amount (which will be 2500 for you), or with an economic useful life of 12 months or less;.(2) the taxpayer treats the amount paid for the property as an expense on its books and records in accordance with its accounting procedures. ( do this on your bookkeeping software or whatever you utilize)(3) the amount paid for the UOP doesn't exceed $2,500. as substantiated by the invoiceNote: The cost for the Unit of Property includes l additional costs (for example, delivery fees, installation services, or similar costs) if these additional costs are included on the same invoice with the property.2) Small taxpayer safe harbor: To be eligible for the safe harbor, the total amount of improvements for the property for the tax year may not exceed the lesser of $10,000 or2% of the property's unadjusted basis.If the total amount paid exceeds the safe harbor threshold, the safe harbor does not apply to any amounts spent during the tax year.

The most valuable takeaway for others though are probably the data sources that I found while putting this together :American Fact Finder - This was a great resource, you mix & match different demographic, economic and geographic data tablesCity Data - Pretty well known, contains a variety of information on different cities, used for crime statisticsHUD Fair Market RentsUnemployment StatisticsCensus Bureau Quick FactsAdditional Census Bureau ResourcesIt took me a while to figure out where I could find good, reliable data, so hopefully this list helps someone else who's unsure of where to look. 

Bismarck is a possibility (more economic diversity) if you'd like to get a rental somewhat close to where you're working.

We look for an oppourtunity to improve physical, operational, and economical efficiencies.