(Also, I did an evaluation of how the area weathered the 2009 financial crisis and discovered home prices were significantly less volatile than the majority of the rest of the country.

Weather: It's snowing in Chicago today.

Like you mentioned, cash flow is king in this business, and when you are able to acquire, rehab, hire, manage, pay off your loan, and still have positive cash flow you can weather a decent amount of storms that a larger property might throw at you.

And we are comfortable here year round (in the winters it can get into the 30s at night, and in the summers it can get to 115 during the day).According to google it looks like the weather in Asheville is more mild than where I live.

It seems like there are mixed opinions on this with some folks saying it's impossible to cash flow here, while some others are only willing to invest here given the natural tail winds (limited supply, proximity to ocean, good weather, higher income renters, etc.), in fact, MeetKevin recently said he only invests in SoCal.Thanks in advance. 

super durable and stain resistant.

Also keep in mind the weather is quite harsh on the typically wood construction.

Still has the great weather though...cant beat that anywhere.  

but I am a very conservative investor who likes to have reserves to weather the storm. 

Again, the idea here is not to compare DMM vs... nothing at all.The point here is to compare DMM with OTHER strategies and THEN conclude weather it works or not.