how to decide how expensive of a house to invest in?

[Richard McCaig II]

Noob here from metro Detroit MI. Im looking to get started in REI, specifically in renting SFH. The options im tossing up is should i try to go for 4 or 5 40-50k home in a not great area, and deal with possibly not great people, or invest in a better area where home costs are higher, hopefully bringing in better clientele and less headaches. Running the numbers it seems that the lesser priced homes would be more profitable per month, mostly from much lower tax rates. Not sure how you guys and gals would do in this situation as there is pros and cons to each. Here is some specifics.

option 1

2 bed 1 bath 718 sq ft. Asking price $45,000 property taxes 1100/yr claims to be tenant occupied @775/month

option 2

3 bed 2 bath 1000 sq ft asking price $225,000 , property taxes unknown currently but from past amounts its roughly $4500-5000. Rent would be $1500-1650 for the area per month

for the price of the second home I could have 4 or 5 cheaper homes! But again, much higher possibility for bad tenants. How would you invest your money and why?