I like Knoxville because the prices are still fairly reasonable and the rents are strong.

You will buy a unicorn at the county fair before that happens.

(By mentoring, I don't mean holding my hand; I have done a lot of research and am fairly smart (or so I like to think 😀) but you obviously can't learn everything from books and research.)

I am fairly new to the forum but have been quietly following some of the post.

Account ClosedYour agent is likely trying to tell you about what value the city has assessed  the house at, which rarely is connected to fair market value (FMV).  

Just concentrate on your marketing and DEVELOPING LEADS and then know that, at any given time (if you're doing a fair volume of business) you're going to have "X" number of transactions at various stages leading up to closing in your "pipeline", some will be actually closing and some will not go through for any # of reasons or "surprises".

It is not possible to give an exact estimate from such a cursory examination but it does give a fairly accurate range.  

In all fairness, my hubby would rather the HUD lady but he left it to me to decide, and I did.

This total is about 25%, so your 10% security margin seems low.At 5% down you would want a fairly healthy reserve fund for unexpected high cost maintenance or vacancies as you have very little equity available.As it is, you're catching a falling knife in Grand Prairie and it is certainly conceivable that property prices and rents could fall a further 5%+ over the next 12 months, putting you in negative equity and cash flow territory. 

Selling might be tough, building and renting seems like a fair idea, you need nice insulation though.