Yes there can be an investment component, but it must be your primary residence as well.

Quote from @Jeremy Holden: STR's are alive and well down in Metro Phoenix, Arizona . 

Worked out well and retined boiler heat with central air in a 4 bedroom 9 room house.So its not either/or; you can have boiler heat and central air together.   

I certainly don't want to get into the business of being a "bottom feeder" that takes advantage of people, but if there is space in the industry for someone to help people in your situation while making a fair profit, I wouldn't mind learning more and getting involved.If interested, message me.

While none of us will be getting our money back he can live well selling off the remaining assets as long as they don't shut him down.

And I an experienced 2-4 unit investor here as well, and have self managed for the most part.  

Then I would do a low risk flip ( rehab less than a few weeks) for hopefully a 10-15% profit, repeat until I have a nice down payment and am sure that I would be able to qualify for a refinance, then buy a buy and hold then continue flipping until I get to the next buy and hold - in theory, the time between each property should decrease as I should be getting capital from the buy + hold as well as I would already have my reserves built up.

Managing costs and maintaining the property well can also make a big difference.

Your new place should turn into your new business location as well. 

@Stuart Udis your absolutely right, as far as the market my biggest issue is that I don’t know that area very well and neither does the agent that is helping me.