First keep educating yourself on content, then you may be able to pick a niche or investment style. 

Management is low margin and full of headaches...maybe not with only one property but even with one...picking the wrong tenant or not knowing how to hire the right repair contractor can cause problems and ultimately vacancy...vacancy kills profit...My two cents.Greg

Im looking to add a bedroom and bathroom to my first floor utilizing additional floor plan space.

I think he's done 2 webinars with Brandon and Josh on BP.I would look into changing the utilities you pay into separately metered for the individual apartments and get that off your back and make the tenants responsible. 

I was recently stationed at Fort Gordon for a couple months and thought about picking up a property, but didn't feel comfortable without knowing the local market better.  

In addition, if the C/O is for 1,  and now will be 2, without the change and approval, the water and electric utility would not furnish you additional meters.

They want a full blown home rented for what utilities cost me.

Having a GC picked out makes this process MUCH smoother because as soon as you are under contract, you can schedule a walk through with your GC and have your formal work bid in hand within a day or two, then your loan officer can prepare your loan app based on the formal work bid and proceed as normal. 

He was very supportive in all that I did and was always there for a pick-me-up when I felt things weren't going my way. 

Cherry pick from that, and hand this over to the appraiser.