I started investing accidentally after college with a house hack before my home town became a wildly popular place to live and visit.

@Jesse SteinIt's not the wild fires that have people moving.

It's the wild west son, the goal is to get the seller to go as cheap as possible, put ZERO money into the deal, get it in contract with no intention of personally closing and then finding whoever will pay the most. 

You can use Zillow and other sources like Realtor.com but I don't find them to be accurate, and sometimes they are wildly inaccurate.

What you build there can either fund or supplement what you do once you all settle in Alabama and can build like wild fire once you hit the ground here.As mentioned stick to the better school zones in the Cumberland area (or surroundings).

Seems like yellowpages/online search is just a wild west because you don't know who you are getting and people are really cautious in giving you access to their prime contractor at least in my anecdotal conversations with a few people. 

I've never seen a 2/2.5 in the wild for a rental.

Homes in the mountains of course with wild fire exposure.

And, the breaking point is just a wild guess because it's different for everybody.

There are way too many variables that go into pricing a property and price per square foot can vary wildly.