Here are my thoughts re the areas - wishing well hills is convenient to downtown, midtown, etc.; Brookwood is a great school district so the property can attract families/renters; Smyrna is the area in Marietta that has properties within my price range. 

It also is helpful to have a California LLC in case you ever sell that property and move into another state so that you do not need to form a new LLC altogether with new operating agreement, just re-register in the new state as a new foreign LLC.

Would that lower our tax liability from other income we receive or no because this is purely RE and not an operating business?

So there are a million realtors, loan originators, accountants (RE is, for most, not complex vs other small business.)

Nor do RE investing styles! 

You may run into issues with re-tenanting and it may take longer than you expect or cost more.  

I'd chalk this up as expensive tuition on your RE journey. 

I used a RE agent to show vette and place tenant for the first months rent.. then I self managed..

Hear your Buffett comment loud and clear and current administration is already making waves.Thinking out loud - cashing out the brokerage account seems like it should be an all or nothing move, to maximize the reward from going all in on RE for FI. 

I'm a Navy public affairs officer, so I move every couple years, but I'm currently in Germantown, TN (near Memphis), and I've been interested in RE my entire life.