I ask because it is not Huntsville/Madison whatsoever;  it is quite rural. 

The problem is that the majority do exactly that, but a great professional real estate agent knows what boxes to check and the tricks of the trade.

If you have U.S. credit, 2 scores must show with at least 2 years of trade line history.

Its a trade off. 

However, for commercial properties in Colorado Springs it is common to see deals trade at a 5% cap rate.

I am a luxury watch dealer by trade, but I've been looking to get into real estate investing.

Larger deals tend to trade in retail at higher cap rates.What you need to decide is how long you want your money tied up into a deal (their exit strategy), and how much you want to place, and if you get cash flow right away, partial, or none until certain metrics are hit.As an example you might get 8% preferred return but upside might be more marginal than a small retail turn around deal where exit is in 2 to 3 years and equity multiple is likely much higher for overall return.

In other words, you may have zero protection whatsoever.

Important to not take one statistic and make conclusions about the entire market.I would have to get to know these areas a lot better to understand the trade offs and dynamics.

The reason why is because there has to always be a trade off when it comes to finding a great neighborhood/turnkey and cash flow.