Between a demanding FT job (that I enjoy,) a wife who also works FT, and two young children, I have no real desire to "all in" to real estate as a FT career at this point in my life.

Good job!

I will try my best to get the job done.

I have 9ft ceilings, but adding a whole new framing and moving trimouts would be a much bigger job.

My comment there was the same as it is here - the problem all these people have is not working a regular job. 

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560, little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Doing these make their job easier which will benefit you. 

Additionally, the macroeconomics here has seen significant growth - population and jobs are both growing, and major companies started moving and developing here (Intel, Google, Amazon, FB, etc).

Do we really want the government to rely on getting more people to smoke more marijuana in order to do their job protecting us and maintaining our infrastructure and schools?

Your new potential guests are insurance companies for homeowner displacement (flood, fire), buyers looking to move to the area but not sure where they want to be, sellers who want to sell but have nowhere to go, contract workers in the area, adjunct professors on a semester job, etc.