Fixed could be a safer bet with your loans already playing interest games.

Honestly, IMO your best bet is house hacking.

Your best bet might be to go to local investor workshops and then find someone very successful where they might take the time to help you out IF they feel you are truly motivated to listen and take action with direction as given.At some point as people age they do want to pay it forward helping others but not those with low motivation or want the easy answers in life with massive results.  

Your best bet is to either add another layer of subfloor (the thicker you can go the better but obviously this can cause problems for transition areas that you may not be adding subfloor to), or use either floor leveler or floor mud to help even out the floor.

I really see Columbus Ohio as an extremely safe bet for the next 10-20 years.

The Shaw flooring representative came over and said that their vinyl strips would be the best bet. 

Your best bet may be to purchase with a hard money loan (Stabilized bridge or maybe a rehab loan) and get the rents up to market / renovate.

And when you finally decide to get serious, she will disappear because the reason she stopped paying you is so she could save up money for the next sucker. 

Now with that said though I bet there have been some people who started out doing OOS investing and it worked out well for them.

I really see Columbus Ohio as an extremely safe bet for the next 10-20 years.