Companies have considerable flexibility in choosing where to set up new operations.

The property itself should bring in revenue ( even if you choose not to live in one side) and generally a bank will accept a portion of that rental income into the calculation. 

I would encourage you to read this beginners guide from BiggerPockets, it's a good bit of information so pick and choose what you want to read or read it all.

The consistent population and job growth are driving real estate values along with many companies choosing to move and develop here like Intel, Amazon, Google, Meta, etc.

Question: assuming an ideal brrrr that has all investment extracted at the refinance, why would you choose a low cost market over a high cost market?

HI @James TobinAs you get into the RE market, regardless of where you choose use this website as a good starting point to find out what the areas are likehttps://www.areavibes.com/Best of luck from Fort Worth 

If it does, but more money down, or forego appreciation and choose a stagnent market that cashflows.

Some, like ours, focus on offering optional services such as renters insurance or washer/dryer rentals without requiring tenants to opt into a full package.When choosing a property manager, I recommend asking about the structure and purpose of any fees.

They/you can't choose the carrier - their software assigns it.Fortegra is one of the carriers (paper in insurance parlance) that their product is written on.That said, Fortegra is A- rated I believe by AM Best so that isn't the issue.I'm going to take a guess and say that your umbrella is written with PersonalUmbrella.com (Markel) and they require all underlying insurance to be A-rated but also with an admitted carrier. 

I would advise finding an investor friendly realtor when you choose a market.