Look forward to reading and listening to the articles and podcasts respectively!

These are to be taken with a grain of salt as they have not closed yet - but it can give you a fairly good idea if you are in the right range. 

My idea is buy something that can be fixed up a little bit to add some value, but nothing crazy.All the houses in my price range are only about $350-450/month for the mortgage.

Many members are experts in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate brokerage, wholesaling, flipping, buy and hold, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.There are some pretty cool discounts on various products and services offered as Perks to BP members that you might want to check out: https://www.biggerpockets.com/perks/pro

Next i would have to say all these older houses have lathe and plaster instead of drywall which in some respects are easy to repair in the case of smaller dings and holes but when you get whole walls that are in need of repair we found it easier after much trial and error just to tear it out and drywall it. 

@Jesse Paulsen There are currently 5 multifamily units for sale in FTN Hills, ranging from $433k-$675k, 4-duplexes and 1-4 plex.There are roughly 233 multifamily units in FTN Hills, perhaps you can send yellow letters to the owners to see if any want to sell to you

Use those 3 to get a $/sq. ft. price range, then compare to a space I'm looking to buy. 

Property values are lower with respect to rent.If you're in the short game of appreciation or you want to flip, the COASTS will be good.

Do you have rental comps with a $ per sq. ft. range?

I see properties listed similar to what you're describing in the $650-750k range, so are you going to be able to separate this cabin from the competition by ~25%?