She works a full time W-2 job and still helped me 4 weekends in a row.

With a budget of $300K-$400K, you could potentially find single-family homes or small multi-units in those areas.I'd recommend researching rental demand near universities like Duke or NC State or even checking out neighborhoods with strong job growth near tech hubs.

I’ve seen that in my W-2 job, so it makes sense that the same value is applicable in real estate.

Our whole job is to broker deals between buyers and sellers.

Used PSI last year, they did a bad job, the snow wasn't even bad last year and with several attempts asking them to do better within the terms of the contract, they still sucked. 

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

USDA does not.If you have a job gap (6+ months of unemployment) on an FHA loan, then you have to go back 2 years prior to the job gap AND be back to work for 6 months before you are eligible.How to avoid this? 

Specifically, there's job growth (Intel, Honda, Amazon, Nationwide, etc) and the population is growing (unlike Cleveland or Cincy).

I have a W-2 Job, capital saved up for a down payment (or two), and a buy box based on my affordability.

Nice job!