If more investors spend a fraction of the time and energy spent worrying about asset protection and do the things on a daily basis that prevents liability exposure, plaintiffs attorneys won’t eat as well. 

If that's the case, see if your parents or another relative would be willing to cosign on this first house to get you started.You can also look for an owner-financed deal, but they are harder to find and they typically want a larger amount up front.

Or does it need to be one in larger cities?

They might work for smaller mom-and-pop units (2-8 units), but not for anything larger.Most owners of larger, more established multi-family properties don’t fall into the category of distressed landlords that off-market strategies usually target.

Have been to Houston in 2013 and from my memory it gave me a similar profiling to Perth, WA very resource centric (mining, oil&gas) next to energy rich region and liked that the city was big yet not maddening as the NY/LA's of the world.

Housing prices in two of our larger cities (Vancouver and Toronto) are also crazy high (eg $1M to buy a starter home)...actually in Vancouver proper at the moment the cheapest home (single family, not strata) is $1.2M...surprisingly (to me) in Toronto the cheapest home on the market is $650K (ignoring some listed for $1 as clearly there is a catch).Our mortgages work differently than in the US, and what we get for rates are only locked in for 1-5 years (typically) and then we have to renew at whatever the current rates are. 

However, if your property is larger or more complex, the cost could be higher.

Thank you everyone in advance for dedicating your time and energy to help those around you, to inspire and to reach your dreams.

A larger multifamily build would generally be more cost efficient as you have less exterior footage and can combine MEP systems.

We use solar energy and batteries to power any electrical equipment.