I am not sure where you are located, but I'd encourage you to call around to PM's & you may find one willing to help you.

Tribes might even provide additional incentives, like grants or infrastructure funding, to encourage investment.

Meaningful home building hasn’t occurred in SoCal since the post war era.

I would encourage you to find local REI meet-ups in your area.

Late payments, property damage, and evictions are avoidable when you have a PM who knows how to find reliable renters.I encourage you to seek out a property management company that emphasizes tenant screening and uses modern tools for verification.

Yes to 15140 and thanks for the encouragement

At that time, my friend encouraged me to get into real estate with the idea of creating passive income and wealth in future (via appreciation).

If appreciation is not there, however, it seems like a potentially long waiting game to see if your $60k investment today returns anything meaningful in the long run. 

I would not expect a meaningfully lower rate and pmt for likely several years. 

Also, thanks @Scott Trench for your sticky post in the new members forum; I was intimidated about posting here, but your post encouraged me to do it (and tag you)!