Areas like Downtown, Summerville, and West Augusta are particularly desirable due to their proximity to amenities, universities, and employment centers.In terms of your preferred strategies, it would be helpful to know what type of lending you plan to use.

It's a decent tool, but as Greg mentioned, I'd definitely plan for a worst case scenario and make sure it cash flows at the highest interest rate juuuust in case. 

We are starting the process of analyzing deals, making a plan and executing on it. 

This is the graveyard of great ideas, plans, hopes and dreams that were never done.

If you plan to grow your portfolio, consider setting up separate LLCs for each property to shield them from liabilities tied to others, though this adds complexity and costs. 

I'm presently a facilities engineer by trade, who does some construction and maintenance for landlords on the side, hoping to get back into the private real estate game.

Are you planning to buy more properties?

I have some upcoming repairs needed that outweigh the Homestead Exemption and plan to make my primary home a long term rental in the next 7 years but the repairs can’t wait.  

Keep that in mind if you plan to scale and buy more properties. 

There's supposedly a large medical center being planned, which will also need convenient housing.