I always enjoy seeings others from the greater Sacramento area, and it´s even more interesting to know you´re targeting Nashville - my uncle lives outside Nashville and has been an active investor there for several years (though entirely in SFR).

In addition to having all of your contacts in one place and having a great, built-in to-do list function, you can also use the "Programs" feature of Contactually to automatically perform certain actions, or remind you to do them.  

I went through the list on sensefinancial (a few automatically ruled out due to lending only local).

While you may not plan on having code in your place, so tenants will have them on speed dial.

Also seems like its pulling teeth to find contractor properly bid this out ( I know this is still part of busy time of the year).Also what is best way to get contractors to bid and to speed up bid process.

The speed of finding a tenant depends on how desirable the unit is for the area, with regard to the area supply of such a spiffy listing;  a week or 2 to do select tenants and gather deposit.  

To give one example, imagine an investor who buys a property with seven rooms, one kitchen, and three bathrooms.

As Matt posted the Chicago landlord tenant ordinance above, be very careful, if a landlord screws up the security deposit you can be out 3x or 4x the security deposit, automatically, and there are lawyers advertising in Chicago like crazy to help tenants made money off of this ordinance.

A great deal can be found, just as it can on any other property, but foreclosures are not automatically a great deal just because they are foreclosures.

I am not up to speed on the regulations there, but you might consider putting out some signs of your own.