Buying a dilapidated property in Lisbon and rehab it as a short-term rental was very profitable and became extremely common.

When analyzing a luxury short term rental (STR) vacation home for investment in today's mortgage rate environment, the ROI & margins can be extremely tight. 

@Danielle Daly does this extremely well in Denver, CO and I'm sure has a few golden nuggets on how to mitigate a few of the cons I mentioned by being a very good operator. 

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

The cost of QuickBooks online doesn't justify our usage.

I recommend people enter RE at this time only if it is a passion and they are extremely motivated and hard working.  

The argument that it is 1 extreme or the other is a false narrative.

I vividly remember the countless hours spent driving to and from remote locations in rural Manitoba, alternating between early BP podcasts and Jim Rohn recordings.Over the next two years, I adopted an extremely frugal lifestyle, enabling me to achieve a 75% savings rate, sold my custom truck for a used Toyota, traded my new home in the burbs for a duplex (house-hack) in a challenging neighbourhood of Winnipeg where attempted break-ins were commonplace.

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

The cost of living is extremely low compared to other cities and you can still many many positive cash flowing and 1% deals here.