So I offered to pay for the flight, if they returned a clean and empty house.

A few years ago one of the investors who had multiple properties in Manhatan Beach CA, then Phoenix AZ, who has been doing it for 30-40 years told me: " A property does not really cash flow till its paid off"Honestly, I am looking at my properties, and half of my properties cash flow anywhere from 800-1k, but the remaining dont cash flow at all..Honestly, I cant say that even those that do cash flow 800-1k per month do not really make a big impact because a tenant moves out, I have to clean/fix, etc.

There is less risk involved in the cheaper properties .

More like  2X to 5X the cash out.. these are done with builder developers on their deals So put out 300k get 300k back in profit plus the interest rate. most small builders/ developers need to have a equity partner so you just do both you lend the money and are the equity partner.. pretty clean..

RE is a lot more active and involved, even if you hire a PM and a GC which BTW eats up your returns.

Build a local team for cleaning and repairs to streamline operations.

Offer to intern, find a way to get involved.3rd - If you find a deal, you can then find financing! 

The tenants have paid and if someone is thinking about moving out then an extra surcharge that hits if they aren't out in time for us to turn the place for a lucrative AirBNB short term rental can help massage the move out timing.That said with MTR we do not have the cleaning costs that eat up a lot of STR gross, and its lower hassle in some ways.  

It involves much more than collecting rent or throwing up a Craigslist ad every blue moon.

This could involve offering a higher interest rate in exchange for reduced upfront costs or deferring payments until a certain milestone.If building right away isn’t feasible, consider buying the lot now with the goal of paying it off over time, and save up to build when rates and budgets align.