What some people on BP don't seem to understand is to stop making the assumption that everyone is not working their best at thisif you have to provide negative comments or any sort of negativity when providing advice, then advice or recommendations shouldn't be your fortéAs i mentioned before.

Or, as Travis mentioned, sell your primary residence and explore house hacking opportunities, which will allow you to snowball income savings to deploy into the next deal. 

Do a series with each focused on the different things you mentioned. 

Anything else that might be worth mentioning based on this? 

As mentioned utilities.  

I see you mentioned Hospitable.

I never thought about it until George mentioned it.

It was 20% down  Like I mentioned on my comment above, it is possible to still finance this property with a non-traditional lender, especially when you are putting 20% down.

Give it a few years and keep learning so when you can answer all the questions that real estate investors ask on here, you'll know you're ready.You mentioned your family. 

I also notice that @Gregory Schwartz mentioned Huntsville in particular—I definitely think that it’s a strong market for long-term appreciation.As for your concerns about investing out of state, I think an investment strategy that is as close to passive as possible would be best.A do-it-yourself approach—where you acquire a property, place a tenant, interview a bunch of property managers, and handle maintenance yourself—is going to be pretty tough to do remotely.