Part of my issue was not having a reasonably priced handyman ahead of time and eventually overpaying to just get it done and also inexperience as a manager.With that said, you essentially have two options: very cheap properties in less good areas (you're looking at 100k or less--which you might have trouble getting a good lender for)  or trying to do some sort of house hack (e.g. live in flip, live in rent by the room, multifamily) where you budget will be closer to 200k-300k.Personally, I would not look at real estate until you are maxing out your 401k and IRA, but lots of folks have done significantly better with real estate than stocks and would think I'm crazy for suggesting this.

The first indication is you spent $290k for $1800 cash flow or a 0.62% monthly ratio.Rent $1800 - PITIH $1480 - $180 (pm) - $90 (vacancy at 5% which is lowest i ever allocate in my underwriting and likely low per the OP description of a lot of new development) = $50 for all other expenses.Maintenance/cap ex on 4/2, 2100’ will exceed $300/month even in cheap labor markets on sustaining basis.  

Buying well built properties - or cheap enough that they fully redid them3.

its not cheap but its pretty good data.  

Rental arbitrage was hyped up when money was cheap.

They are not cheap by any means (expect double digit interest rates) but they are available. 

Often times, cheap is expensive!

I am going to be the contrarian on this subject.. 1. the pre license course is valuable as it teach's the vocabulary of real estate and the basic laws of your state.. its dirt cheap and one of the better ways to build your foundation. 2.

So what many do is they try and do it on the cheap, and get death by thousand needles instead of making the investment.

Anything decorative go as cheap as possible.