And I still have cash left over to do a couple more smaller deals - possibly land deals, that will boost my margins even more.9.

I had one where we used the street for 20 ft to use the curb cut and then put in a private driveway along the rest.

.-  Curbed Atlanta- Atlanta Neighborhood Classification- Intown WireRedfin and Zillow are great tools for evaluating neighborhoods, prices, days on the market, etc.  

Use your talents to bump up the rents and increase the curb appeal during the first year and as leases renew increase the rents.

When they leave I get vacancy decontrol and can raise rents to market for a nice boost.

So you might not be able to use that rental income (on paper only) to boost your mortgage qualifications.

Before showing them properties you can have them sign a NCND form.Lot's of things you can do to curb your risk of wasting time and not getting paid.

I would love to hear any advice people have on HOW to do the due diligence and learn about other markets, vacancy rates, rental rates, and curb appeal or location value of properties that are outside of my area. 

Are they boosting appreciation?

They are planning to do some landscape type work to create more "curb appeal".