Anyone in Houston investing in an opportunity zone? 

I have been an active investor most of my life and now I enjoy passive investing.

Hire an interior designer.💡 How do you keep rehab costs under control and avoid surprise expenses?

Lastly, thought of leaving money in the duplex side, separating the SFH, deeding it to an entity to refi and only take cash out that.

Assume an average 3bd 2 bath house in Columbia $150,000 (e.g. 

The lender is pushing you to do this to get an FHA loan.

Probably approaching $100k in total.My options seem to be sell and pay an additional ~70k out of pocket to the lender (underwater amount) or make the repairs and hope the problem is corrected once and for all.

Quote from @Jeff Calcaterra: We have a potential tenant new to the area who has gone through a paid background check, signed a background check authorization form, sent us a LinkedIn profile, sent an offer letter and says he is willing to send us paycheck stubs, but says he doesn't want us to call HR to verify employment because he is supposed to have found housing already.

@Chris Seveney it is in an upper middle class suburb of Cleveland.

We have an agent we work with in Central Florida that is awesome!