As visible in many such threads, DFW is a very aggressive market with lot of investors (local, national, international).You can pick several paths for investing - based on your risk tolerance, investment objectives, age etc. 

I also have a masters from CMU in Architecture-Engineering-Construction Management so I've got a hold on scheduling, paying subcontractors, and knowing when they're lying to me :)I currently work out of Chicago (and plan on being here for the long haul) as an engineer/project manager for a large national commercial general contractor and I love what I do but want to expand to do my own thing on the residential side in the short term, with long term aspirations of doing commercial development of my own.

So when you are reviewing national reports keep this in mind. 

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/tampa-is-the-second-best-city-in-the-nation-to-invest-in-real-estate-study/2295940

The day job I reference places me in the construction and heavy industrial world as the corporate safety manager for a mid sized company.  

Hey Jasmine, I use OS National for all of my closings.  

But even that site has caveats, is clearly sampling only SFRs (not reasonable in high density metro areas) and assumes a $1,000 rent which not even a national average nor applicable in many cities.If only this kind of analysis could be automated and kept up to date and be more inclusive.

For my corporate job I use SAP which would be overkill for a much simpler business like Real Estate at least from the accounting perspective.2) Is there a BP post on process flows (infographic) for deal aquisitions that way I can wrap my head around whatever methods of deal aquisitions exist?

I have registered both a Corporation (taxed as an S Corp) and a LLC member managed (taxed as a partnership, since there are 2 of us in my buinsess) in my home state of Minnesota for the filing fee of $150 each. 

What you mentioned, is something that is applied across the nation or is it more of a MD lending policy?