So, if you buy an older home it's typically much cheaper, since you're not paying much for the structure. 

Quote from @Kody Smith: without getting too deep into my finances, what my strategy is...1. take loans to buy properties (leverage)2. fix/flip for day to day cash flow income3. use some of the fix/flip income to buy consistent cash flow through:- business acquisition, - commercial properties (MF and store fronts),I have no intention of doing ALL of the management myself, I will hire management as needed (medium term goal)my expected core role is money provider, evaluating the numbers, making decisions, and connecting with investors, wholesalers, lenders, contractors, and property owners.while I am just on step 2 of the journey, I am looking toward step 3 to stabilize, and not worry about if house prices drop mid project or not (or not worry as much) So to be fair this is more about obtaining and growing a real estate business not simply buying rentals for cashflow.

AS Much as anything most folks in RE in that area simply rely  totally on them ..

You can have a mansion fronting the Mediterranean, but if you pay too much for it, you're done.

But don't let them know it.It amazes me how many of our members at MassRealEstate dot net have an Asset worth $300-500k Rent it for .5-1% of value and hardly pay attention to it, yet chase a tenth of a percent in CD rates;-)

Most flat fee listings are willing to work with a buyer's agent and pay the buyer's agent commission.

I have done over 30k reservations and only had 1 instance of a guest causing above $10k in damage, so not sure how worth it is to pay for additional coverages. 

Quote from @Jaycee Greene: Assuming you pay asking price, I'd estimate the down payment for something like that using a hard money loan (HML) would be around 40% of the purchase price and your monthly payment would be $2,600 with an interest rate in the low 7% range (probably need a 700+ credit score to get that).

Now, you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them.

The spread between what they're paying and what the market rate indicates is not that much.