Hey Fred, I moved to Columbus a few years ago (from Portland, Oregon which was super expensive) to become a full time real estate investor, and ever since, I've completed quite a lot of BRRRRs, flips, and own a successful rental portfolio here in Columbus Ohio.

For clarity, please note that Folsom has the Real-Time Market Profile with the lower median list price of $820,000 and also the For Sale/Sold/Pended graph with less inventory.

Assuming you are at 80% LTV or lower, you do not need to escrow funds and can pay your own taxes and insurance instead. 

No major expenses aside from the day-to-day.

The other brokerage, Coldwell you mentioned, has good training, lower splits, and much lower fees (and they don't charge you per page on the copier) You do NOT need to affiliate with a broker until you are ready to get licensed, so you have plenty of time.

The mortgages and closing expense can be written off to eliminate the taxes as you want 

The Chattanooga market for STVR has had many recent changes making it harder and more expensive to get permits.

-Most leasees never exercise so 3 to 5 years from now... you keep the option fee, and had the benefit of rent that was probably above the market rate for your area.The drawback is that you don't get the ~$250k(after selling expenses) to play with. 

In my models, I have expenses (less mortgage payments) track the same number so I find the total rate of return to be relatively insensitive to this number.

So many 30-only rooters completely dismiss the lower rate but that's where the magic happens.