Hey Ron, welcome.I used to work a self-employed job in NYC that was also very unpredictable with ups and downs, and in 2015 [and years leading up to it] moved to Poconos specifically for airbnb, starting with a small tiny cabin, and it worked out since.

Then add a tiny home or two to your acreage and rent short term. 

Furthermore, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on in that photo, but that tiny little branch looks too small to do any significant damage, and the dents appear to be hail damage (not typical of a tree limb which would be scratches not perfectly round dents).

As you get experience, work your way up in the quantity of your apartment complexes.Being able to use the cap rate when adding value gives you more "bang for the buck". 

Tiny percent of casino action. 

Also I think that it may allow us to aquire a larger quantity of traditional home loans since in the future my DTI will be much better ;) ...

The only large quantity of properties in my under 200k price range are studios.

Have a "contingency" clause in the purchase contract that if something comes up unexpectedly you can "walk away" with no penalty.Work your way up in quantity as you gain some experience. 

I've spent time on many different forums as interests change and I agree that the upvotes help to keep the quality vs. quantity of posts in check. 

I think some of the challenges you're going to have speculating appreciation with a new build in UT county are (and this is my skeptic side, so take this with a bit of a sarcastic tone - and sorry, I just re-read this and it's long... ):Lot sizes are ridiculously tiny - you're not going to find a lot of availability of a spacious lots (or any size lot) for a reasonable price.