As for what the house needs, it needs a new kitchen and appliances, remodel 2 bathrooms, new lighting throughout, new hard wood throughout, a lot of wall paper needs to come down and repaint entire interior, carpet the basement and reinstall new drop ceiling in basement, power wash house and refinish outside deck.

My in-laws had actually suggested I go into real estate as an agent, but in our old market (Burlington, Vermont), I was under the impression you needed to wear a power-suit & be pretty fake & that just didn't appeal to me.  

I imagine it needs to be quite a large area, but it might be interesting to see if panels on that structure could supply enough power for the rest of the property.One concern about renting it out separately from the rest of the property is accessibility.

Anyone who uses jumper cables to steal electricity should not be allowed anywhere near power tools or even a hammer and nails.

If you can do that in writing then more power to you.

What if the rental properties that were intended to contribute to your personal freedom instead became a ball and chain that you could not escape? 

But, I recently moved back to my home town, and I noticed more homes in my neighborhood are vacant, taxes are high, and the local power plant is planning on shutting down, worrying the locals about raising the taxes even more.  

Basically, I realize that saving up for downpayment and then applying for a loan to get a property around $150K is probably not the best strategy for me to achieve my financial freedom:  the cash-on-cash return is not great, which delays the process for next purchase. 

That will give you freedom to bid on property and seller take your bid seriously. 

I don't regret the journey I took 16 years ago and I will do it again if asked. but the end goal of all this is achieve financial freedom, not for the love of real estate.