You will be hard-pressed to find anything that will cash flow.

And I'm not even talking splash and dash work but simply renewalTake up old carpet and refinish the hardwoods underneath cheap and easy as heckProfessional interior paint and trimReface cabinets, new appliances, new vanities in bathroomsclean the place new doors instead of those ugly old brown onesNew light switches (trust me here), faucetsnew light fixtures"shrub up" and trim the lawnOn a small house you would be hard pressed to spend 15KNow rent it to tenants who love it and who might buy their own starter house in a couple of years.  

Even considering a SFH rent by the room strategy to friends, I'm hard pressed to find anything that will cashflow. 

As people press into our country because of our fought for freedoms and flee their countries because of lost rights, I think it will be harder and harder to own RE in the US.

* there are many, many, many different vehicles that can take you to each bench mark in your investing journey and uncovering these to set a path for yourself will be your first step!) 

If you run all of the numbers, on all of those examples you gave, I bet you would be very hard pressed to find a good example of one being an investment...without some sort of rationalization.

If you want to build one I would go with Word Press either way, I would read Mark Simpsons book: the book direct playbook.

@Kenneth Reimer I agree Freakonomics is great however I think "when your going that deep on the bench" The often most people use the reading books as an excuse to do anything. 

I spoke to a real estate agent and he said I would be hard pressed to find a property in that price range in a good neighborhood and that the Temple/Killeen area would be a better place for me to look.

It was a brilliant marketing strategy that got him a lot of free press coverage.