You can do your taxes yourself but I guarantee that you are missing out on more deductions than the CPA will cost you.A few high level points:1.

Population Growth: Target cities with a minimum 1.5% YoY growth over the past 20 years and populations exceeding 100,000.

The repairs needed are estimated at 80k (this is a high estimate to allow the investor to chose roof type and other contractors in the area for some other repairs needed).

If you are in an active market with many recent sales of 2-4 units homes the appraiser will be able to find a few highly similar properties that have recently sold that are highly reliable indicators of value.

1000 to 1200 maybe OK you get more ratios that are better than that on paper your going to go into high risk areas .. just saying.

If you have no track history I would park most in a high interest savings account or in a passive vehicle.

I know that DFW and TX in general is booming and have great underlying fundamentals with population growth, however I am specifically interested in understanding perspectives as to whether or not South Dallas would be considered a "path of progress". 

We could easily put in a ministorage down the road or some other high caprate investment.

Growing Population and Infrastructure Development**: Mobile's population continues to grow steadily, driven by a mix of natural population growth and inward migration.

I would highly recommend reading Bigger Pockets Book written by Avery Carl called Short Term Rental, Long Term Wealth.