I don't have any experience running apartment buildings or any of my own capital to invest, but I've assembled a great team of advisors.

Not to talk myself out of a job this is what I'd do:Get the demographic data from census.gov; population & population growth, employment and job growth, housing types and numbers.Check to see what data HUD has on housingCross check the above with the MT Dept. of Comerce and other state agenciesWith the size of the market in hand I would check the major (and any local) apartment ILSs apartments.com, forrent.com, Craigslist, etc. to get a sense of the tightness of the market.Then once you gotten the lay of the land, next survey the people on the front lines;Commercial brokersProperty Management CosAppraisersTitle companiesCity planning/building departmentAll the MLA members and apartment owners in town that you can track downThen of course you have to assemble it into something useful.

But you cannot use open cell foam in a fire rated wall assembly.

Over the years I assembled the list of lenders who offer such financing, hope you will find it helpful:https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/2810/50272-lis...

In other words, if I'm assembling a RE portfolio, and I have enough money (which I do), I prefer to search for, look at, put under contract, inspect, close on, and rehab as many buildings at once, and one after the other, as possible until I collapse.

I'm wondering if it would make sense to source modular homes in China and have them shipped to and assembled in markets like Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham.

Now we just go almost exclusively IKEA -- one day of shopping, one day of assembling and you're done. 

Roof assembly should begin Monday.

I can't see why I couldn't be competitive and offer custom work doing things in this pre-finishing assembly line approach. 

Some will swear by the non-assembled RTA cabinets but I would rather use assembled.