The real estate in Alabama is so cheap and in this college town finding tenants won't be a huge issue. 

He is in his 60s now, has a portfolio in almost 50 doors in a cheap part of the city, which he managed himself for the last 30 years, he does his own handyman work to save money, his tenants drive him nuts and after 30 years he has almost no equity to show for.

You may be lured in by a cheap price or a pushy agent trying to sell you on a deal. 

Reality is in 2024 you will make no money using property managers unless you bought early on for cheap.

Once again, they did not go cheap...they could have spent $400 ish dollars to buy me a cheap DQ (I still expected as much) but they offered $1500 as a top limit and said go ahead and pick a new one!

The materials themselves seem quite cheap.

If you can get it cheap enough I’d say buy it.

@Harsh Dangaria As screw ups go, $5000 is pretty cheap.

In this case I simply advertise on the base newspaper which is super cheap given how frequently people come and go there are always reliable leads to be found.Or how about creating a simple "I Buy Houses" website and spend a few bucks to have it professionally made and SEO optimized? 

They're not cheap in Mass.