You buy a cheap house far away from where you work, and rent it to someone. Let them pay your mortgage and before you know it, you've got enough equity to put towards another house. Rinse and repeat.
I'm also a bit weary of having to manage properties in far flung locations. I rather use a property manager, who would eat into the profits.
It just runs itself if you get good renters. That's where you put all the time and effort upfront.
Yes it has some risk. All investments do. I answered the question about how you get on the property ladder if you can't afford local prices. There might be other ways too.
No different from living in a house you buy. Except what I recommended is a little safer. If you lose your local job because the local economy collapses, you're now stuck with a house you cannot sell, cannot rent, and that ties you to the area. Ouch!
With a rental far away, if that economy collapses it's already a small mortgage so no big deal. If your local economy collapses, you can move out of your local expensive rental and look for work elsewhere. Or even move into the cheap rental investment you just bought if that economy is doing well. Buying far away spreads your risk and is safer than buying to live in near your work.
I remember having a conversation with a real estate developer in SF in 2021. They said that this used to be the path to owning in places like SF, but that it’s no longer a viable option.
Before you do the investment property thing though, make sure being a property manager is truely how you want to spend your life. Investing money into financial instruments is a lot less work these days, what with robo advisors platforms (eg wealthfront, betterment) providing easy places to invest from.