The real estate industry is very competitive and EXTREMELY expensive with  large overheads and you will need to spend a lot of money on marketing if you want to build it into a successful career.

You have to look at:#1 your competition in the surrounding block area (like 10 block radius).

If you don't want to bill your tenants, then you can still monitor the usage which will help identify leaks and heavy users.http://www.guardianwp.com/ provides this service for KS and MO as well as 40 other states.  

We have several good connections in the Knoxville area for subcontractors but feel we might use a GC for the first flip if they can be competitive.

Think about how firm you want the mattress to be and which mattresses will hold up to heavy weight guests.

And if so: it's called competition. ;-)

All the good deals were being driven up by 3 of the local heavy hitters.  

One key advantage I could see in a new neighborhood is simply the free exposure of buyers interested in the new subdivision especially if you can offer better finish or a more appealing design than the competition if it's all fairly cookie-cutter. 

Total aside - I lived right next to drug dealers / very heavy users in a B+/A- area in Northern Virginia, but their frequent guests didn't cause any trouble to me (didn't break into my car or rob my house), so I left it alone.

Your buddy Brandon Hall has some competition.