I would personally avoid violent crimes, our tenant had made a bad choice but it wasn't a violent one. 

I bought a new home in Grove Park with the intention of doing a basement conversion ADU and renting out the space traditionally.

And just use the stocks as a reserve.Or a third option is transfer my traditional ira into a self directed ira and use that money.

In their markets that could be the wise choice  But SF  LA Seattle  etc these are different animals. 

Does anyone have any general advice for regions and cities outside of the traditional Las Vegas area?

However, syndications are more suited to taking care of certain elections/choices(cost segregation) that may be overlooked by the individual investor.Furthermore, when you are an investor in a syndication, you are at the mercy of the syndicator to provide you the K-1 before you can file your return.

Also, check with a CPA but you will have to report this on your taxes differently than a traditional rental.

Once the bank has it, there is no way to get access outside of the traditional process.

I used traditional financing through a local bank here in Louisiana. 

It's basically the same process as the traditional FHA loan except you have to get rehab pricing and the lender uses the Maximum Mortgage Worksheet.