At that point I'm competing with professional builders/developers but without volume discounts, in-house labor, etc.  

Its a struggle this business and hard work and sometimes for years you don't see the fruits of your labor but keep at it.

Your returns may be higher on the house hack once it's finished, tenanted, and flowing, but you may also have to put in a lot of labor and $ to get there, so you'd have to run the math.

You must execute relentlessly; however, it takes time to realize gains from your labor.

It also cost me a good amount of the money to buy a brand new water heater, materials, and labor even though I had yet to receive for rent.

And while you need a down payment and a loan you also need carrying costs, materials cost, some labor cost, reserves, etc.  

I bought a house for $15,000 in a great town, with great schools, had smoke damage, which cost me 500 to fix 200 of which was the paint sprayer. im putting in my own labor (weekends) when all done i will be in for under 30k (which is your savings amount) my neighbor just sold their house (100sft bigger) for 180k.

Even with me doing some of the manual labor.  

Consider this last point, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic "Employment of real estate brokers and sales agents is projected to grow 3 percent from 2014 to 2024, slower than the average for all occupations." 

Look into those.I wouldn't work for free in US, cuz i remember reading somewhere about labor laws that interning must be either for academic credit or tangible compensation, whether financial or commodity like room and board.