There are significant details that I'm choosing to leave out regarding rent payments and balance left for the owner as you terminated the lease early. 

A nice tip I got in a youtube video recently is once you've identified a market you wish to invest in, the first member of your so-called team should be other investors in the same market, especially those who are doing something the same or similar as you.

They had named him Rommel on purpose, as they were involved with prison gang life and some people.. well I guess they simply choose to not reform or adjust.

If you are limited to those areas for residency, and you choose to keep that job, you are going to have to either a) wait for a couple years and save up a heftier down-payment, b) change your strategy like you said and go for houses further away (do flips, STR or BRRR).Or, if you are sold on the house-hack concept, at some point you might have to look at a different job that allows you to move where house-hacking will work....

Their videos, webinars and web content have been a huge help in presenting what the concept of shared ownership looks like in real life.  

I choose Italy because I have a few advantages there.

This was my first property, and while it's been a great learning experience, I made several mistakes along the way—ranging from choosing a realtor who was more focused on closing the deal than finding the right house, to having a poor inspection and overlooking issues hidden beneath the surface (literally).

I don't know where you fall, but if you are aggressive, then there are lots to choose from (more than 100 deals a month) and they are very easy to locate.

The city is rapidly growing in terms of population and job market with so many major companies choosing to move and develop here like Intel, Google, Amazon, etc.

Then focus on improving your interviewing skills to help you build a solid team on the ground wherever you do choose to invest.