There's supposedly a large medical center being planned, which will also need convenient housing.

Try looking into cities in with stable economies, strong renter populations, and where housing is below the US median value.

I just bought 5 houses in 5 days in 3 states, 1 of the states I never bought property before. 

You’ll need to handle inspections, work with housing authorities, and make sure your tenant screening process is solid.

You can say houses are much more expensive today!

I attempted to contact them multiple times but they wouldn't respond to attempts, I'm talking weeks with no response, so I hired another PM who went over and said the house was undisturbed and nothing was broken. 

House hack is the only option but even that might not be feasible.

There is a small (<600 sf) house on the lot currently, which is in pretty rough shape. 

The good news is you don't need a specialty loan for a house hack, just a traditional primary home loan.

I have some in-house laborers for any large projects but sometimes value add can even be raising rents to market or finding an off market gem.