We barely held on to the house with a HARP loan due to my disability. 

The area is just plain weird, and Pittsburghers as a rule do not work well with non-Pittsburghers.I am up to my eyeballs in work and even my involvement here on biggerpockets.com is a luxury that I can barely afford.

I have heard that high end or luxury homes tend to rent better on VRBO, and AirB&B are better for regular houses. 

My last one before we made the change below was a pink toy phone.

I pay the bare minimum on my rental and take the cash flow and apply it to my mortgage in an effort to pay it off as quickly as possible, it's a small two bedroom condo.  

Seems like at this price point putting 30% down and getting a mortgage for $980k @5% (assumed) gives me a P+I of $5k or $60k annually which barely covers the NOI.    

Perhaps you can cut down your expenses to the bare minimum and work on saving up for a down payment.

They barely make 2.5 - 3 times rent.We worked on upgrading the the exterior of our building with improved landscaping, and painting the carports. 

I have a contract on a duplex in Independence, MO. We've done the inspection and appraisal and everything looks good, just the roof is a little old, no big deal. The contracted price is $110k, appraisal came back at a...

Barely breaking even or worse.