The reason they offer training is so that you will know what to do to buy low and sell high for maximum gain.

I'm in 38114, which may be the problem, but I will never buy another house from them. 

I'm a buy & hold investor in the Marion, IA area.

You should avoid investing in condos.The numbers will tell you to buy, flip, or hold.

So you want to buy when or where inventory is up-- irrespective of rates.

Many DSCR loans come with standard 2-3-5 year Pre Payment Penalties, borrowers usually have the option to 'buy out' of these penalties upfront with points or by accepting a higher interest rate.

I would look at both areas everyday on realtor or redfin, check out the houses run numbers on them, and over time you will start leaning more towards an area while also zeroing in on what youre looking to buy. 

We have thought about buying an investment property and not sure if we should flip a house or buy a 3-4 rental.

When the banks saw that there was a huge wave of defaults, they stopped lending so people that needed bank loans to buy a house were not able to buy houses.  

You either need to become an expert and do SEO yourself or hire an agency that has a complete plan and roadmap for getting you to a place where organic motivated leads are flowing to your site at a rate where you are taking down profitable deals each monthMike Plactere of We Buy Long Island Homes Fast is a perfect case study of someone who used this approach and is dominating his market.