That person will be able to tell you what you can do and following that plan will give you peace of mind about your further investing strategy.

I used to live in the city and the taxes and water bills are nightmares.

I have purchased the following books:ABCs of Buying Rental Property The ABCs of Property Management The ABCs of Real Estate Investing The Advanced Guide to Real Estate InvestingThe Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money DownWhat order do you recommend reading them in?

This shows the importance of networking locally, building your connections and your "tribe". 

I am of the opinion that you'd be better served using that money toward the down payment on a property.

Leaving the area for the sake of real estate investing isn't in the cards for us.

The contractor that we have been working with for a while came to take a look at the walls with the structural engineers, and they told us we have to change the structure of the entire kitchen wall.

It's tough to work with corporate seller's.However, there is a TON of investable inventory in the Atlanta market right now that is institutionally owned where there process is very ridged.

My excess cash flow per year is around $300k in cash, meaning theoretically I could do 6 deals, but in order to make that salary (HHI $722k) I need someone with the time to do the repairs and manage the tenants.

LLC in the state of operating?