While he should have been educating himself in real estate principles, finance and law, he was instead learning about weasel clauses, driving for dollars. and what color postcards to mail out. 

I have all of the drive to be successful in this business and I have finally taken action.

Then like you they tire of big city and want to go back to their roots..

They live in an expensive house in an expensive neighborhood, they drive a car they owe money on, and they complain that their wife doesn't let them invest anything in real estate.

I only track the mileage driving to specific properties.

It's good you have a goal and using that goal to drive your decisions at each step will guide you. 

unless you have some kind of advantage, or creative strategy, or both (boots on the ground, sourcing quality off market deals, MTR or STR, house hacking, etc.) there is really no market where you can get a few hundred plus in cash flow with current off the shelf rates.you should 10000000000000000000% not buy a random property in Memphis because an Excel sheet tells you you will make $212 a month on it.if you want to go to Memphis and spend a few weeks there, drive around, meet PMs and other investors, and really lean in - go for it. 

Just curious, would you pay for a Driving for Dollars list in your desired zipcode or a boots-on-the-ground person?

I am torn between 3 locations: Jacksonville, FL (it's still FL and a drive/quick flight away), Baltimore, MD (we used to live in MD and it's familiar), Midwest: Columbus, Detroit, ???

He began to raise his voice and challenge me as to why an oven would be so dirty… I offered that I had used it a few times and that it didn’t smoke but had not deep cleaned it.