I think you have the right focus TG,
I bought a house in Normal Heights in 92 that with 10k in materials and some elbow grease rented for nearly twice the mortgage w/impounds.The point there is to show how far it was before the trough.People thinking comfort homes were getting in trouble and people thinking economics were doing O.K. and in some cases they were doing what I was doing many times over, with crews doing the grunt work.
I am not saying it absolutely isn’t the end of the world, but if it is what difference does it make that you dumped some change into a few rentals? The odds are against the end of the world and favor you in every other way with that kind of initial cash flow.