Consider starting small by house hacking a single-family home, renting out rooms, or adding an ADU if possible.

Couple questions for you, as I am an agent and aspiring investor.

So when you build your pocket neighborhood, which is an interesting concept, what's to stop an undesirable person from moving in.

This would be an opportunity to discuss deferred payments and a 5 year balloon. 

When I get an unrecognized phone or text, I let the call go to voice mail, then I text "Did I just miss your call?

Hi Joshua, I am an investor friendly agent.

@Fabio Cattolico"if I could get an out of state property for a great price and the numbers seem promising, wouldn't it be good to start off like that if I'm in a place where buying is unaffordable?"

The price-to-rent ratio makes sense from an investment standpoint, but further research is needed to identify whether those respective areas will prosper.

Hiring someone to do the work will likely cost too much (I would charge a small fortune, it's an incredible amount of work) and doing things as cheaply as possible will bite you in the *** later when you start having issues with your own shoddy work and/or materials.

I've also leveraged their webhooks to automate additional things on my end like setting the thermostat to the appropriate temperature an hour before the guest check-in and turning it off after they check out.