I am an investor and an agent in the area and I'd be happy to connect and chat about the market.

That will cause a sellers market due to multiple bids over bids and properties now appraising back on positives. 

I didn't really rehab them much but was thinking the hot market pushed the process up enough.

•Diversification across different property types and markets reduces risk.

My research has turned up a rural area with a decent rental market where 68% own and 32% rent.  

Welcome to BP and the Grand Rapids Market!   

Are you skilled at marketing - if so potentially you could market yourself as a virtual assistant for folks in the real estate world so that you can learn from a lot of folks at once? 

They are cheap, and will get cheaper in coming recession, as tourism to Vegas will decline, and they have superior growth and great management, that know what they are actually doingADC -(Agree Realty), they do what I do privately, but on a bigger scale, run by Joey Agree , very smart, they have excellent growth, multi-tenant, triple net retail, and grocery anchored Retail, they will benefit from massive secular tailwinds, as there has been under construction in retail for years, due to fear of E-commerce, higher construction costs/insurance costs, post GFC under financing-construction, etc, so existing inventory is commanding higher rents, we are bumping new leases by 7-11%, they will get this endogenous earnings growth for yearsthese should perform well over next 10 years, never buy anything in Real Estate for less than 10 years, to allow to go through cycles, and if you can buy in 401k/IRA so dividends can be re-invested tax freegood luck, you have to monitor your E-REITS like you would any other stock, closely, as they move with sentiment not just on NAV like private Real estate, so you can't just dose em w 200mg of propofol and walk away, not that you'd ever do that :)good luck

FMR in our markets is around 900-1100 monthly for such properties, so the cashflow is there.

that is a true private lender.Any other lender that has a website or advertises or is on facebook is a Hard MONEY LENDER HML started to market themselves as Private Money lenders about a decade ago on the guise that folks will think there rates are cheaper and they are easier to work with..