The only access to the basement is through a tiny door in the kitchen and due to the extremely low height of these areas, I'm assuming cost of labor would be expensive.

I see it as a tiny home.

I’m not sure why everyone hates them so much except that I think they expect far more money for a tiny footprint of property…

Roof is definitely ready to be replaced, siding doesn't look like it is in very good condition, and I am concerned if this tenant left, it would be hard to keep people in it because it is so tiny.

With that being said why would they want to lose the appreciation of their house when if they’re fine for a tiny income stream they could simply rent it?

if your going to go out of state at least to start.. simply buy something that is either already rented or rent ready.. the down side to trying to rehab on your own as a beginner FAR out weights the tiny equity you get doing it yourself.. and how do you know if those writing the books are successful  LOL..

500sqft for 2 bedroom seem very tiny.

Most of the rehab has to be depreciated which means deducting it in tiny pieces over almost 30 years.3.

If you have $100k in equity already (after resale costs), then you can do a lot more with that than some tiny cash flow.On the other side of the coin, you should find out how much expected appreciation this home may have as well (no way to know for sure but law of averages for area can help) as this could be a good payday down the road if you add it to the small cash flow years down the road. 

I love the tiny house idea.