There are many ways to buy cheap elsewhere but still lose your shirt. 

Ours is in a rural area with strong seasonality and lots of regional vacation travellers going out for a weekend or maybe a week. 

I work a lot, probably more than the average W2, but we also travel a lot, at least 6 trips every year.So that's what's driving me, numbers on a screen are nice, but they are not fulfilling on a personal level.

Let's connect as I travel there about every quarter.

Definitely with study, makes no sense to cheap out.

Part of my issue was not having a reasonably priced handyman ahead of time and eventually overpaying to just get it done and also inexperience as a manager.With that said, you essentially have two options: very cheap properties in less good areas (you're looking at 100k or less--which you might have trouble getting a good lender for)  or trying to do some sort of house hack (e.g. live in flip, live in rent by the room, multifamily) where you budget will be closer to 200k-300k.Personally, I would not look at real estate until you are maxing out your 401k and IRA, but lots of folks have done significantly better with real estate than stocks and would think I'm crazy for suggesting this.

I like small units (they don't trip breakers) and they are cheap.

Ditch the cheap shower surroundPlease don’t buy that cheap five-piece shower surround that you saw at Home Depot or Lowe’s.

@Gamal Harding you forgot that it's never fast enough for tenants or cheap enough for owners:(

It's cheap and doesn't give them your house address.