Not a good idea for some of the same reasons-high costs of purchase combined with inexperience and renos gone bad/out of control. 

I canceled our online subscription and bought one desktop version.I hate paying $650/year now for QB Desktop but it’s the lowest-cost solution to our problems.

Not sure, if this means hiring multiple people (one for appraisal, one for inspection, one for cost estimates)3.

Rates on DSCR are just as competitive if not better than conventional financing.Conventional loans are dying in the investment space

You could even team up with other investors to split the costs. 

I am retired and working on career #2 and 2 of 3 of our kids have left for college - our oldest is headed to UConn for her PhD (6 years) and instead of paying to rent, our thoughts are to do a version of a house hack with buying a house/condo and renting out one to two rooms to offset the costs of her rent.

They had signed the lease, but I had held off signing until they paid the upfront move-in costs. 

I can understand that low cost housing will appeal appeal to a different tenant profile, but if the product itself is very good won't it also attract the kind of tenant you want more readily?!?

There are also several build-to-rent projects going on with builder financing deals snd some even offering perks like property management (even free for a period) so maintenance costs can be kept lower in the beginning years. 

Low acquisition price, medium investment cost.