Not all cheap homes will sell easily. 

And then have an escape clause in case “much less” isn’t cheap enough. 

My rental has 70% appreciation since I bought it but because it's in the Deep South and cheap I could get max $170k and the mortgage pay off is $97k.

Until you have more than 20 properties Quicken (quickbooks little brother) is cheap, easy, and overkill…

Quote from @Andrew Steffens: A fast, easy, and cheap way to increase occupancy: Have a pack and play. 

Owning a lot of cheap properties can be less profitable than owning a few better properties.

I went online and got a template for my state at a cheap cost.

Additionally, the price point is still cheap enough to find the 1% rule and positive cash flow and there's amazing appreciation potential.

Cheap items will beak down & need to be replaced often with the turn over rates you get on STR units.

Quote from @James McGovern: Having enough cheap capital to pursue I take a short term approach with assignments, using the capital from the assignment fees towards longer term deals such as buy and hold and fix and flip.