I’m open to most price ranges although I have been looking at 150k-250k cause I’m having a difficult time finding cheaper at the moment.

What if one of my parents moved to a cheaper market and could “house hack” there while managing it?

You won't positively cashflow, but you can certainly live cheaper than it is to rent the same house. 

Property over there is much cheaper, our dream home which trumps our current is $200k.  

Additionally, you could hire a real estate attorney for a short time to draw up the required documents for you and would probably be cheaper than paying a full commission.

Let me put it this way....if you bought toilet paper on Amazon cheaper than me.......it would bother me

So it's very easy to see a trend in the going price of my building.Should I be expecting all lenders to be doing the more expensive walk-thru appraisal, or could there be some out there that will charge me less for cheaper alternatives (i.e. drive by, or even just looking at comps on the computer?)

You should get a HELOC and buy a cheaper property with that money.

Better than vinyl, cheaper on insurance and doesn't fade as bad.

In most cases, the rental income will make our cost of living in our unit much cheaper than it ever would be if we bought our own condo or single family house.