Figure out a question set that helps dive into their expertise as investor-friendly agents, ask about their experience in the investment real estate space, and have them send you a few properties that could meet your goals to show that they can provide quality properties for your to analyze (hint: this is also good to see if they overpromised on their market [ex - Raleigh for cash flow]).Also with the new lawsuit, any agent that knows what they're doing will require you to sign an agency agreement prior to viewing a home.

At least comparatively to properties in California, Washington, Montana and Idaho, investors seemingly still get a lot of value for their capital. 

Since your lender requires prior experience building and selling/refinancing a single-family residence (SFR) on your own property, you may need to adjust your approach.

I’ve seen cases where multiple tenants in a household had prior evictions from different addresses, taking turns as the primary leaseholder to avoid detection.

Your primary residence - if you've lived in it for 2 out of the 5 years prior to selling you'll get the $250K/$500K tax free iike @Clint Galliano said. 

You aren't required to offer a loan mod prior to foreclosure.

Comparing just those two things, you would save way more money in the long run by avoiding the annual mortgage interest.

Step 3: Compare build plans / specs to decide what you want to build.

Unless new companies create replacement jobs in the city requiring similar skills and pay comparable wages, your tenants may be forced to take lower-paying service sector jobs.

Did you find any prior knowledge (tenant screening) of pets moving in?