The answer to those questions will help reveal what strategy makes sense for you. 

Either way......Trust me the business will teach and reveal itself to you once you get started.

Not revealing too much personal information. 

She needs to reveal her budget be4 yall start spending her money.  

If so, we can just look at Dallas as a whole, and start our search in the counties/ZIPs that look most promising)These are the maps we created:FloridaMissouriGeorgiaMarylandNorth CarolinaVirginiaPennsylvaniaNew YorkColoradoTexasAfter looking at these maps, and reflecting on where we would want to live, we narrowed it down to the following 5 (in order of personal preference):Denver ColoradoThe San Antonio -> Austin TX CorridorThe Washington, DC to Richmond VA CorridorSouthern MarylandRaleigh-Durham, NCNext StepsWe are still discussing what our next logical step is...but we are fairly certain the next immediate step is doing a more qualitative analysis of the areas: reading business journals, reading local newspapers, investigating school and community development initiatives, investigating school quality, etc.With that qualitative analysis, we will likely eliminate another 1-3 cities, then plan to build our team and network with local investors After that, we will build our team in those cities and plan a visit to build relationships and vet properties.I hope that revealing part of our process helps at least one person, even if it's just learning something about your market from the HUGE CSV FILE I posted.Do you agree with this process?

Once you're clear on your goals and where you want to be in 5-10 years, the strategy will reveal itself. 

I did so early on and went under contract, but the inspection revealed MAJOR structural issues that cause use to terminate under our inspection out.

Things that books alone will not reveal.

I was trying to get advise without revealing too much.

This plan should clearly identify all of the capex, and should also reveal what the actual level of current funding is for those items.