Are there any other directions you could recommend/ platforms you would focus on? 

Thanks for the encouragement.  

I currently have approximately 50,000 to 100,000 that I hope to deploy and would greatly appreciate any tips, advice or encouragement that you guys would have.

For us here in Hawaii $200-$250 is appropriate for a property valued under $500,000, maybe a rule of thumb would be about .001% of the value.Payments and Reservations...There are independent companies that provide Payment and Reservations systems, however, the majority of self-managed VR owners will use VRBO or Airbnb system (or some other platform).

Should I encourage my friend to make this investment happen, even if it is without me (or for a small share of it in exchange for assisting him, finding it, managing, etc.) or just wait for a couple of months until I'm in a position to invest my half of cost but risk losing the property?

I encourage you to use the search box in the upper right and read all the different views on the subject.

Before believing this market won't work for you, I encourage you to spend the time learning what is available with a fair amount of work and dilligence.

I hadn't thought about starting out in property management, that is a great idea.As far as the RE agent, I was thinking more along the lines of being more of an investor agent and learning through that platform is possible.

I've been burned too many times by tenants who lacked parenting skills and were not responsible in other ways, which led to damaged properties and unpaid rent.I encourage prospective tenants to bring along a friend or family member for a look.

There are very few platforms for raising private funding in Zimbabwe, and mortgages hardly focus on investments like this, rather lending to individual home seekers.