For a first time investor, I definitely recommend house hacking for most people as homeowner loans are by far the best in terms of rate and LTV. 

@James Tobin  house hacking is a GREAT way to start.

https://www.har.com/content/department/newsroom?pid=2141Houston Real Estate Highlights for December and Full-Year 2024:
-Following two consecutive years of declines, single-family home sales rebounded in 2024 with 85...

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

You don't want to distract the buyers from the house with too many items or stuff.

I think if you can nail that down you will be able to find a market easier.As a buy and hold investor some of the things that were important to me when deciding on a market were landlord tenant laws, price to rent ratio, housing demand, ability to build a team, large population 500K plus, multi-family availability and some other factors.take the process step by step and you will be fine. 

Do you have a step by step list when looking at the potential house?

They claim the repairs were done and that the properties were worth more at the time of purchase but that the area has deteriorated since then.Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated!

@Luke Spencer I am not on the management side but I can tell you it took 2+ years to fill 300 units at one of our facilities and the other just hit 300 units in 12/13 months so it really depends on the demographics, and local housing market trend, the more people moving in and out the higher the demand for storage.I think if you're looking at a saturated market then the upfront cash to turn the warehouse into self storage is not a good idea but then again, maybe those operators are on back roads ( low visibility ) and don't push google ads well.

@Tim Holt, Yes INDEED house hacking is the best option for most 1st time buyers.