An area with an outflow of older families/retirees and an inflow of young families always interests me, areas that the city is trying to revamp interest me, and areas bringing in more local or boutique style shops ALWAYS interests me...particularly in smaller markets.  

I own a couple of SF rentals, one long term and one short term (Airbnb style).

If you're looking for an asset based product (commercial style, non qm, DSCR based, etc) you can often work with brokers from outside of TN, say CA, who are registered with banks/lenders with a physical presence in TN.

He stayed indoors after that. 

If situation permits, I would suggest you look into out of state turnkey, that is more passive investment style, requires a reasonable capital to begin, but you can have people taking care of things for you. 

I’m thinking if we save up and start doing some pop-top style development and eventually move into larger development.

I sprayed in the apartment and set up an indoor bug zapper.

We've installed plenty of this style and we've had no failures that I can recall over the last 3-4 years.I can't speak to your issue. 

For cabinets, go with as neutral as you can (if this will be a rental I would avoid white shaker style personally). 

The use of private lending and seller financing cannot be overstated in a situation where you don't clearly fit into the banking debt 'matrix' style of lending.Your situation is extremely common for new investors seeking financial independence.