However, from a real world day to day experience it's a totally different animal.

Don’t get me wrong, some people have been very successful with OOS the last 10 years, but today is a very different market from 2012-2020, and I think you owe it to yourself to understand what can go wrong.

today's market is just not the market for buying a random property on Zillow and turning it over to random people.and you said you want a newer build in a hot market under 250K with positive cash flow. 

Had you left your 430k that would be worth about 1.3 million today probably.

Someone had congratulated him for how many doors he had in Cbus and he pointed out that he was collecting rents in cash with a pistol and his day to day was anything but fun.  

Yea they would keep that in place and you'd get a second position mortgage for the rest at, well, higher than todays rates.

The typical income from a free and clear rental would probably be $800-1500/month - and on a financed rental probably $300/month on a good day in today’s market.  

That home was in Milpitas CA.. probably worth about 1 mil today.. but I lived there 2 years sold it made over 50k and I was off to the races.. primary home equity as I look back 50 years of ownership and multiple homes has made me well over 2.5 million in tax free gains. 

Thats how I started in real estate and how I help clients today south of Boston and in RI.

2) if you were getting started today, and take ONE piece of information you know now, what would that be?