Have a good sized cash reserve and know you can pay 6 months of mortgage without a tenant  I would say put at least 20% down if possible  

. - https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/renting/states-best-...Qualify a Market: Job growth – at least 2 yrs. going upStable Job Market Net positive MigrationJob diversity – a lot of employers in different industrieshttps://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ http://www.city-data.com/https://www.wikipedia.org/ https://datausa.io/ You can Google search above as well.

I signed an agreement with seller and on-site manager stating that all the employment terms were to stay the same, and all agreements were to stay in place, but would transfer to the new company.

What do lenders/banks think when they see this strategy being employed? 

Right now I have been using a helpful site: areavibes.com to narrow down my search a bit and my criteria has been this..Cheap (about 60k PP looking at my capital for a down payment & rehab)Good employment scoreGood housing scoreLow crime rateThis has helped me find a few cities to research but I am still unsure of which one is a good choice.

I was self employed with another business.

Does location play a significant role in wholesaling because I'm in a medium sized town in Mississippi and last week I was following a wholesale training video on YouTube and went on Listability.com to find "Absentee owners" ...

As experienced self-directed investor @Larry F. gave you some good tips, and it seems that you did a good job educating yourself.As a real estate agent and notary you are considered to be self-employed, therefor qualify for truly self-directed Solo 401k plan.

Account Closed it sounds like the appraisal was a comparable to another duplex, probably of similar size, age and condition.

I personally dont contribute in the Retirement plan right now because I can always resume when I am making more money, and plan to have other kinds of Retirement plan that will let me contribute a lot more than normal limitation for an employed worker.