My wife and I are trying to figure out the best first steps to building our investment inventory to become independent of “careers”.  

Search for property managers in Charlotte on Google and hit their website, look at the inventory they have for rent and triangulate your potential rents.Costar and Yardi publish market reports, these are multifamily but you can get an idea of rental rates and market dynamics through them and then triangulate your rental. 

The situation is completely independent of the properties fundamentals.

@Charyl J. finding a good independent insurance agent in the Kalamazoo area will be your first step.

I still live in half a duplex today because it's really the ticket to financial independence imo.

Swift's essay was published in 1729 and Franklin's letter is clearly modeled after it. 

And is it common to have a personal endorsement in order to protect an LLC owner personally - especially if the owner will be actively involved in the remodeling process (LLC comprised of self & spouse with no employees - only independent contractors)?

Larger nationwide brokerages will have quarterly reports they publish that you can find on their websites.

In your opinion, where are good places to meet and network with small, independent builders in the DFW area?

Overall, my long-term personal goal and the reason I'm here is to have financial independence & "retire early".