Beware of people with “something to sell” stating how great their product is.

For $500K go buy another income producing asset to offset any losses you might have.

I was thinking about buying the land (maybe it is 20-30k for the .25 acre lot), finding a builder in the area, and seeing if I could build a ~1,250 sq ft 3/2 single family house and see if I could make the math work. 

Where are you buying your rentals?

There are different laws and nuances that you would consider when buying in a different country.

I've done a lot of research into this and believe this is for me, but am getting some roadblocks when it comes to funding requirements and my buy box not aligning.

My PERMANENT portfolio is my SDIRA; I try to buy more solid performing notes that I won't need to work on (although they haven't all panned out that way...). 

Not your typically RE agent and I don’t sell I only buy till the day I die, my kids will have that choice if they choose to sell.

I also like to be set higher than most of my competition because I only buy really cool properties that are sought after.

I am now looking to buy my second rental but I have been looking at single families because the deals seam to be decent. the prices are surprisingly cheap over there for a single family averaging about 200k.