Experience level of the team.

You would want to buy a fixer upper of course.  

In the meantime you find another Fixer-upper to Rent until you have Profit in you Home to Sell Tax-free and move into your Rental and do it again.

While the Fed looks to continue their trajectory of cutting short term rates, I suspect the mid and long points of the yield curve (particularly the 10 year, which is what most mortgages go off of) will stay elevated. 10 Yr treasury today is 4.4%, but if it goes up to 5% or 6%, your mortgage will likely be in the 8% or higher level, which then hits CF even more.  

I lived in Upper Saddle river back in 88 with my parents and remember all the beautiful homes.

Just as you will be out of state, as long as the lender has knowledge of at minimum the state level where you're looking that will be perfect. 

Depending on your level or preference of analysis, data and their providers are incredibly important and difficult to obtain when it comes to real estate underwriting.

Maybe not but I suspect he is not at my level well over 3000 fundings in 17 states of this exact type of home.. but its good you doing your due diligence and getting both sides of the coin.

Over my time (over 30 years), if your lender will make a call to the seller/seller's rep to explain the level of due diligence we've done on the buyer usually goes a long way.

The City of Montgomery is the Capital of Alabama with a robust economic environment that has produced multiple awards of excellence at the Chamber of Commerce level.