The trades/building industry or property management will be of the greatest value to you in regards to real estate investing.

So I've read a few real estate book, I'm no pro and yet obviously, and the advise I get from people in the industry hasn't been 100% true. 

I've heard about the carpet industry growing in Dalton, but wanted to see if there's other places I can look into around Georgia.

The tier system takes into account: Average unemployment rateMedian household incomePercentage growth in populationAdjusted property tax base per capitaPoverty level, age of housing stock, proximity to adjacent county employment, employment sector concentration, at risk industries, ... these data points are not part of the tier ranking algorithm.

Work in some capacity in the industry?

My name is Alex Khodnev, I am an Industrial engeneer from Israel.

Its a job / population growth story w/ a lot of diverse industries and good quality of life at a reasonable cost that will continue to attract businesses to move here.  

My advice, ask other agents, call up other brokerages, go to business mixers and inform yourself of the industry, use glassdoor for reviews on the brokerage firm.

I currently make a pretty good living as a car salesman, so my goal is to ride the wave while the industry is up and dump all of my money into rentals so that in 10ish years I can ramp up and do it as my primary job. 

Apartments, houses and even industrial complexes.