@Walt Dockery Yes, We are going to move to having yard care included for sure.

Sometimes life delivers a crazy hand that we are dealt.

My mom wants to partner with me and buy property together since she has perfect credit and a better chance at being taken seriously by the banks that will give us a mortgage. we are going to go 50/50 on the down payment and all expenses/maintenance. we will be getting an fha loan and putting 3.5% down which will allow us to have a big emergency fund.

We are contemplating on finding an agent or selling ourself as we speak..

We are receiving leads from all over US all the time but I am just not sure how to handle them. 

I appreciate your posting this, because we are also in Alabama and are preparing to finish out about 700 square feet in our basement.

We are implementing the "BRRR"  philosophy.  

But we have it gutted and we are just scraping up tar and airing it out.  

We are super hungry, motivated, and willing to do just about anything and everything to make our business a success.

If the deal we bring to the wifey sucks, we are dead in the water.