Until all capital is called I desire that my SMLLC invest in mutual funds and need to set up a brokerage account.

For some tenants it was a breath of fresh air and their desire to stay in the community and contribute in a positive way as great tenants made the transition for us favorable as well.

I would suggest doing the hard work yourself by finding a value add property that you can get some instant equity in and then with a management company putting in place a system to create the cash flow and returns you desire.

That is... until I found out about biggerpockets, REI, and my desire for financial freedom from our w-2s.

Hi Andrew, Canton or Federal Hill areas are desirable because many young professional want to live there meaning you'll tend to have a nice pool of potential renters.

There is a thread in another BP forum debating the merits of keeping your RE mortgaged in order to make the asset seizure less desirable in the event of a lawsuit.  

and 2. is $50k your budget or it just sounds like a desirable price?

The trick is that you need to do the math and offer no more than what would make sense with your desired cash flow. 

Is this area considered desired for rent?

You might want to consider J Scott's "flipping formula" for the Maximum Purchase Price (the most you should buy a property for) which is as follows:MPP = Sales price - Fixed Costs - Desired Profits - Rehab Costs, whereSales Price equals the conservative estimate of what I can sell the property for (not necessarily the price I’ll list it for!).