@Reid Chauvin brings up an awesome point about getting qualified for the loan so I'll focus a little more on the area.You're going to have a damn near impossible time finding a single family home that cash flows as a traditional rental in Nashville.

With my current income and expenses it would be difficult to qualify for a traditional mortgage.

We would really appreciate any advice on what types of account we should use to invest our money aside from a traditional taxable brokerage account.

On a traditional loans your credits cannot go towards your down payment to a degree usually just count on putting the minimum down on a loan as a down payment and negotiating other costs as a credit.

In addition, in this market, depending on the area, 8% COC return on a traditional 20-25% down is pretty good in my opinion.

3) 10% for a commercial building is hard to get, but since he will be owner-occupied, he may be able to get traditional financing at 70-75% and get another 10-20% from the IDA or SBA. 

If you were driving your car to an intersection, with your children in the back seat, and the the light is about to turn red, would you floor it without knowing where/if any cars were coming through that intersection from the sides, just because you "wanted to get into (through) that intersection"?

My PECO bill for the public light account has been crazy high for the past few month (this month being $650, during the summer it was $100).  

Maybe a neutral tile and light gray grout which won't show dirt as easily. 

I started doing some light searches on Zillow already but there are slim pickings.