Any general advice is much appreciated.You should house hack to start.

If I were investing in eastern WA, or where my extended family lives in Pennsylvania, those 100k houses in good condition are a real thing there.  

Need to clean the junk out of house .. hoarder .

I also work with atheletes to find housing since I am a retired athlete myself. 

We plan to stay in this house for more than 5 years unless another great opportunity arises, but maybe it is best to allocate a bigger portion of savings to our real estate investment savings account than our home improvement savings account for the first few years.

A lot of our housing stock here has finished basements or in-law suites, so with something like that you can generate significant rental income for an inexpensive conversion. 

I suspect it's due to the change in the housing market and economy.  

I know I will get myself stuck in the analysis paralysis stage so I am hoping that bouncing ideas off this group will help me take the leap.

Hey @Jonathan Baptiste, so we are a bit different than some.We have a large house that can sleep 12 comfortably and we provide a lot of stuff.

Be careful not to violate any Fair Housing laws during this process.