If you have large debt with a high interest rate, I would consider paying that off before getting started investing in real estate. 

I have done some research, but I’ve found that many mentors and coaches are asking for significant fees, which feels like a large financial commitment, especially as a newcomer to real estate investing.

The information contained in this post is not to be relied upon.

If you remodeled, added a room, replaced a roof, painted, boosted the curb appeal, etc. that's a different story.

We're not aware of anyone that's made a purchase from them work in over 3 years:(Most of the incentives in Detroit are targeted to owners that will live in their home or developers targeting large projects.

It very well could become a large enough investment to be worthwhile, also solving for "unexpected emergencies ", for the most part and would an easy self management situation if you were to live onsite in one of your connected townhomes.

We do have cash available, but with a large amount of equity in our primary residence, we wanted to avoid tapping into that cash to instead take advantage of our equity.

Buying a large new build home can also work well as a house hack as you can charge a premium rent, and generally most bedrooms built now a days have en suites (at least in my market).  

Or you may find a D street in a B neighboorhood.

You can probably beat $2000/year insurance, but the management fee should be 10%, you need to factor in turnover too and 5% is probably not enough for both maintenance and turnover and I assume you added it, but you didn't mention property taxes (which have been terrible in Jackson County lately since Frank White decided to jack them through the roof).