I’m a licensed real estate agent in North Carolina as well as a contractor here in the triangle.

Not everyone is a professional investor or contractor background.

Not related to it being too far away, I did not really enjoy the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area so much.

My wife and I have enjoyed the MTR strategy for about 4 years now, and I think it is a viable way to "do" real estate, but it is definitely an acquired taste that not everyone is going to enjoy.MTR isn't quite LTR, and it isn't quite STR, and it definitely isn't just merging the two together.

I don't think you even need to be a general contractor or subcontractor to set up an account there.They have a cool warehouse Northwest of Chicago.Otherwise, Home Depot's Lifeproof floor is pretty nice too, but not sure how it compares in pricing to what you saw.

Was it a licensed contractor?  

Honestly there are several career paths that will help (Renovation contractor, real estate agent, corporate RE analyst)  but depending upon whether you are looking for a career investing/flipping versus using your W-2 career income to build more by flipping, you can approach it better in my opinion by learning through doing.Flipping especially 1 at a time isn't a full time job and my thought is that you get help on your first, maybe first few flips. 

Be sure to look up proper contractors in your journey.

Good luck, and enjoy the process!

I need a general contractor in order move forward on my plans to flip, as well as becoming better informed on the what, how and why of the processes incumbent in flipping.