They perhaps can build cheaper than you can, finance cheaper, operate cheaper and to get it leased up, offer things like 1-2-3 months free rent. 

Look up Michael Blank and apartment investing together and you will find a great resource who is giving a ton of info away from free on how to start in apartments.

He has tons of videos on each country and the viability of the asset for people buying internationally.

I have my heart set on real estate investing and have been researching every free second I can.

Feel free to shoot me a DM and we can connect!

I think he might be over thinking some of this feel free to message me.  

I also added one other habitat which I am very excited about, but have not started to implement yet...I would like to do it once a day, but I think I will start out with a once-a-week video journal entry!

If your goal is cash flow, then your best bet may be to live in it for 2 years, and then take that tax free gain (250k single person, 500k married) and buy elsewhere. 

Even though you’re not fond of DSCR loans, it might serve as a bridge to free up your line of credit for quicker flip-and-reno opportunities.I remember years ago, a close friend of mine was in a nearly identical situation.. from what I read in Forbes, he ended up with zero wiggle room each month.

There's tons of options and even free options for landlords. 95+% of ours pay online and we have 3 tenants that drop payments off at our office.