From my perspective, in terms of building an REI portfolio, the best bet is to spread your capital over a couple solid cash flow properties and let your tenants pay down your loans over time.

I just worry about revealing my poker hand before the game has started...

I'm relatively new to the real estate investment game as I only started out with rentals two years ago and I'm just going about looking for flips now, so any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.Thanks in advance.

However being new to this game I just wanted some feedback or maybe even some reinforcement that I'm making the right decision. 

If it is a portfolio loan, honestly the bank can do whatever the heck they want.

I just really want to get in the game

I personally hate when wholesalers play this game and send out daisy chain properties.Wholesalers in my area do this all the time and send out each others deals, etc.I won't even work with them if they aren't in direct control of the deal with the seller.

Most BP investors outsource since they aren't running 15+ properties with $100 million portfolios.

New to the RE investing game, I have have been trying to find my niche in real estate investing. 

Assuming you used the whole 475k, you could have a nice little portfolio of cash flow props in Birmingham (and other Midwest/Southeast markets).