Unfortunately looking like this specific deal likely won't pan out; seller is definitely not motivated to offload quickly/discounted based on their replies.I found a realtor through BP who I'm now working with to find a property, so progress in the right direction!

I invite you to perform the exercise and find what your cap ex allocation should be.certainly $50/month for maintenance/cap ex and misc is not enough and this property is definitely cash negative when properly allocating for expenses.  

I’m definitely not an extrovert, and I’m not a big fan of talking to people in general.

Good summary of what your market is looking for but as we all know, each market tends to have its "wish / want" items which differ from market to market.Flow is definitely a selling point but make adjustments come with a cost. 

Then she would have them provide a landlord to verify renter history.Since these possible tenants didn't apply through Zillow, I was wondering how I should go about getting this information?

I will definitely reach out. 

BRR(hold)RR.It has definitely changed. 

Would definitely recommend reaching out to a couple RE attorneys to chat.

Actually, during COVID (January 2021), mortgage interest rates dropped to historically low levels, reaching 2.65%.Wondering how long will I have to wait for rates to dip below 3% again?

Smoky Mountains seems to be a solid choice but I wonder about oversaturation and competition in that area?