I will spare you all the entertaining details. 

However, when the house is being worked on, I generally change the front door locks and leave a lockbox so contractors can access the house, I have a spare set just for that.

Basin, sparing us some of the resulting devastation.

As @Ola Dantis said, you could buy a house and rent out spare bedrooms, or buy a 2-4 unit and rent out the other units.

Flips are fun for me, I struggle more in the "finding property" stage.Also, not sure if it posted earlier, I tried to update my prior comment to suggest house hacking your house if you have a spare bedroom to a female roomate. 

Should I stay away from investing in areas that have little to no recent comp activity?

If the business or rental space was physically part of the living area of your home, such as a spare room used as a bed-and-breakfast bedroom or attic space used as a home office, your business usage doesn’t affect your gain/loss calculations.

@Timothy Doenges and @Thomas Good I live in the hot spot with the natuaral energy and currently work in the field but I spend all spare time studying realestate.

If you left Seattle to drive to Spokane for instance, that is just over 200 miles if you make no stops and live near the freeway entrance.You could make it with 50-70 miles to spare (I would assume in good conditions).

You did not mention what your financial situation is but I would stay with my family as long as possible and live and their basement or spare room.