I would recommend house hacking locally.

If you are open to a partnership reach out to local investors in the area.

Depending on the scale, a local CPA may not be able to perform a full audit.  

I was getting interest rates that were slightly over 7% for a fixed, and I recently learned about the 5/6 ARM through my local credit bureau who I had financed my car through many years back.

Something more like Rent-Price Ratio and local income growth would be better.

I probably should've searched the archives a bit more before posting.

I would suggest at least have a chat with some local realtors/investors to familiar yourself with the neighborhood and growth potential. 

Otherwise, you could attend local meetups, join mentorship programs or work with investor-friendly agents.

By the way, their motivation was revealed by searching public information.

There are great local groups like the North Carolina Real Estate Investor Association and TREIA.