One might choose to undercut their competition slightly, but only enough to lure enough renters to 100% occupancy, even a 5% undercut would likely achieve that.In other words, you should have good reasons not to buy, reasons that outweigh the fact that if you rent you're not really saving much money and you're buying the property for someone else.

They will be able to give you advice on specifics on how you can achieve your goals!

The highest salary I achieved was $55K/year. 

Another option (which from your posts, doesn't sound like one you would like to entertain) is speak to a lender that offers a portfolio product where you can pool properties valued at $72k - $99k together to achieve a total minimum loan amount of $300k ($50k per property). 

Trying to achieve two goals first is get my family into a more comfortable house and once the dust settles, I will be looking to buy a property out of state and start doing brrrr for the long term.

Then use that as a guideline instead.All too often beginning investors try to impose an unrealistic criteria for a given market, when achieving that criteria is impossible for that area because it doesn't exist.I get investors who say "I want $1,000/mo cashflow with minimal down in a B class area" -- and for the most part that doesn't exist.

What is your position and what do you want to achieve I can give you some pointers to help.

@Jason LamBe very careful of “Deals” that people are trying to sell you.The challenge with you being non-local to an area is you are 2 dimensional and only as good as your team on the ground.I recommend before you buy anything make sure you know what your end goals are for the reason you are investing once you know what your end goal is then you create a strategy to achieve that goal.Once you know the strategy then you find the properties that fit.Once you know what a “deal” is to you and you know your business plan... then you find the team that aligns with you and your business model.We work with a lot of investors, of the 1,000 properties we manage 50-60% are out of state / out of country investors.

Let’s assume you can earn $100 of spendable cash flow per door, how many doors would you need to achieve your goals? 

I would suggest trying to picture what your life looks like when you retire ,how much cash do you have coming in ,and where those assets placed once you have an idea of what that goal looks like then you create the strategy to achieve that goal.I don't think you need to get a job in the industry to be successful.