I like to believe I earned their trust for when I need to borrow from them again.

All the friends I trust were out of town or married, and I was done living with strangers. 

The property is under a family trust.

If I did set out to invest in the local area, I would scrutinize the numbers like crazy and be extremely conservative with my estimates.

This is due to the extremely annoying TX 50a6 home equity laws.

You all must agree to the same thing or else you will just end up fighting about what to do.Since your mom doesn't have it in a living trust, I suggest you do that right away.

I have looked into setting up a trust and place each property under a LLC, and keep all under a family trust.You might have some insight that might be helpful on what is the most efficient way to do this.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.

A friend of mine in Austin once negotiated a partial buy back option when the seller realized they might want back in if the market soared.. from what I read in Bloomberg, that approach can work well if both sides trust each other.If the tenants’ rent covers your carrying costs, that’s a nice cushion, but you still need to clarify that buy back clause.

This was extremely frustrating since he charges a pretty penny for closings.Based off my experience I would not recommend him for a 1031 transaction.