Based only on your description, if this were my market I'm not sure I'd even be comfortable paying 50% of the current price at those rents. 

They might not be comfortable with you collecting the rents but atleast seeing the day to day stuff and the budgeting so you see where the expenses are. 

Our mortgage for the old house was $3500 and the new mortgage which is now $3150, that extra $600 we’d have to cover put us out of our comfort zone and would not allow us to save as quickly to buy another rental down the line.We would have loved to keep it but we just couldn’t figure out how to make the numbers work.

As long as you have a plan A, B, C on everything, I would be comfortable buying in any market.

As mentioned, doing it now before more life happens makes it less risky, but still there is a lot of comfort and security in that steady paycheck.

There are people from all walks of life, and like yourself people stay where there comfortable and know their surrounds.

I feel very comfortable with lease options but I wouldn’t do them in Texas.

It may take you 9 months just to be comfortable to get started if you're coming into this on ground zero,...

So I'm trying to see the negative of reducing cashflow, if it is a good idea, more risky... etc.So at the moment, yes would be nice to have more 'cash flow', but in my current situation, I make enough money from my day job that I'd be comfortable working 9-5 until I had developed a substantial amount of wealth. 

One suggestion I have is to figure out how much cash flow you'll need to live comfortably in Nashville.