I would also recommend that they have sufficient 'skin in the game' IE additional down payment above and beyond just having lived there a while. 

Small units in small quantities are expensive to build.  

An Investor leveraging funds who has sufficient reserves, is no where near as vulnerable to a downturn as someone who is leveraged at 90% and has 1 month worth of reserves in the bank.  

Your primary insurance policy with $300,000 in liability coverage should be sufficient in 99.999% of all lawsuits.5.

I already gathered sufficient capital looking to build up a network of realtors/brokers/handyman. 

Specifically, do mid-sized to small towns outside of big cities have sufficient rental demand for rent by the room?

When you bid on a tax deed at the Sheriff's auction you must have sufficient cash in the bank to be able to get a cashier's check to cover the full amount of the purchase on the day of the auction and you must be able to live without the cash as it often takes a year or more before tax deed investing provides any return of capital.What is a Georgia Tax Deed?

AND, I would require that there be a smoke detector in the garage that is "connected" or "talks to" the smoke detectors in the house so that if a fire does break out in the garage, the tenants can get out out before the house burns down.I would also make sure that there is a sufficient fire wall between the garage and the rest of the house.

We'd like to seek a construction loan to complete the build of our new home - does anyone know if a typical real estate rental business plan would be sufficient to show potential income increase? 

Your primary insurance policy with $300,000 in liability coverage should be sufficient in 99.999% of all lawsuits.5.