Too many lose sight of this and divert their attention to other areas that become meaningless or irrelevant if the real estate is not sound. 

Consider hiring a property manager for the first year or two, then transition to self-management when you have more experience.Hiring a property manager is usually cheaper than losing a ton of money making rookie mistakes.

I have seen MANY sellers shoot themselves in the foot trying to get a higher sale price but losing MORE because time more than ate up the additional money they might have gotten.

Sorry about you losing money with him.

Does anyone know if we are still required to give a 30 day notice and continue to lose out on rent that is being paid on time?

So after 1.5 years of searching, putting in offers, losing deals after inspections, yesterday I finally closed on my first investment property.I put together a document of all the lessons I learned that I did not know prior, despite countless hours of investigation on my end. 

Do you see urban areas like Austin losing their appeal or is there still enough draw from tech jobs and lifestyle to keep that market strong?

If she loses her job, she's stuck.

It’s also not as cost effective to just upgrade one unit when it’s vacant because then you lose economies of scale and in the instance of materials things may not be available over an extended period of time and you may end up with mismatched windows or something.

The tenant at least stands to lose their home.