I hate to see you getting burned by this experience and never investing in real estate again.

Better yet, fly into Burning Man this year and come to my camp.  

Below that I would then guesstimate your "cash burn" during each month to make sure you have renovation funding aligned with your project.

People that normally would have bought a house couldn’t get a loan, and many people burned in the mortgage crisis had no interest in being anything other than a renter again.So it became a great time to be an investor in single family housing.  

Why not add a restaurant while you're burning some cash?

Keep saving, even when that money burns a hole in your mental pockets and it seems like it's all for nothing. $11K is a great start, and might or might not be enough for a solid beginning in RE investment. 

We also have the the great open spaces of the high desert (burning man.)We are vibrant growing city ( population 500k).

You never want to burn a fellow host, but in the same regard we are not all created equal. 

Something he always hated, and the mostly-falling apart farmhouse was all my parents could find after being handed a 30 day notice.The house had holes in the walls, no insulation but it did have a nice big cast iron wood burning stove so we didn't freeze to death in the winter.

It's been a rough year and to be honest I'm pretty burned out so my goals aren't super ambitious and more geared towards a break from all of the stress and some peace of mind.Sell the horrible derelict house i live in and get moved into the "new" house.