Here is the condo:http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1761-Red-Jacket-Dr-Antioch-TN-37013/108741488_zpid/Rent comps for 2 bedrooms in the complex are anywhere from 1200-1300, but I couldn't find any rental comps for a 3 bed.

If you're just starting out as a STR owner, you want to make sure your photos rock, you're providing everything that you have in your own home and make sure your guests are aware of it, charge lower rates at first, then after you have some positive reviews, start to raise them slowly.  

Hopefully one day you'll be big enough to actually NEED that service, and if you didn't plan for it at the beginning then whatever profit was left is either at zero or in the red.  

Are there any red flags when dealing with section 8 tenants?

Think lottery winners, pro athletes, rock stars.

If I "cleaned it up" (the way any investor would clean up any home to be remodeled, i.e. this home is OLD, plaster and lathe... would replace with sheet rock, EVERY surface in the home would be new) and later conducted a meth test ONLY to satisfy my curiosity... and said test results were negative, where is the meth house?

There are many many more hoops to jump through, and paperwork needing to be filed, and custodian fees (and fees and fees) not to mention having to deal with "non-recourse loan" lenders AND the complications of the taxes...I came to the conclusion that unless you can buy the property outright in the IRA it just wasn't worth the hassles, red tape, paperwork etc etc etc.Plus, RE has many great tax advantages that you would be giving up when buying in a tax advantages account.If I had $150-200k in the account, that would make things different.

In the future if we do I think we will pull out the old ceiling and put in new insulation AND put up the quiet rock.  

Similar to Justin, I have heard that there is a ton of red tape to work through.However, many people don't even try.  

I handwrite all of my letters, in red pen on yellow paper.