The real money is made later as a result of equity gained from your tenant paying off your mortgage and from compounded appreciation, which you'll get if you buy right. 

It appears it was a compound issue. i found where the teen of another tenant went to smoke in the attic.

This is a compound interest formula...not a simple interest formula.

To compound the difficulties, I'm out of state. 

But you would only be able to save your income from your jobs to start investing again, whereas if you stay in your current situation, you could have the cashflow and your income to compound and buy more properties faster.

Nobody wants to buy high and lose money, but by choosing not to take action I would intentionally forgo the most powerful potential feature of the compound interest formula, the exponent.  4.  

Then determine how many buckets of compound, rolls of tape, screws, corner beads (inside and out), sanding screens/sandpaper, etc...You will need to do the same thing with each scope item to get an idea of what the material costs might be.

This helps nip issues in the bud and prevents small issues from compounding.

@Daniel Haberkost to answer your question, i live 1500 miles away from my rentals. as far as challenges that are specific to the rent by the room strategy, i would say there are not any additional challenges by living far away. all the challenges are borne by being so far away but it doesn’t really compound itself over just renting a whole unit. if you don’t live close, you will need a PM or will need to put together a trusted team. i chose to put together a team and am very happy with it. you will still need a way to deal with some of the bs that goes on with this strategy whether you live close or not, like the dreaded and oh-so-common..........................................food stealing.

For books I would suggest; Millionaire Next Door (teaches you that millionaires dont have exotic cars and mansions), then Rich Dad Poor Dad (Teaches you fundamentals of cash flow and compound interest and discipline), Then get into the real estate books (How to get started in Real estate by Brandon turner, Crushing it, what every real estate investor should know about cash flow, and the BRRRR strategy are great places to start.