I grew up on the east side of the town with a well versed knowledge of the neighborhood. 

On top of that I had the city coming after me for fines due to the condition of the place   This was a drug infested area of town.  

That is fairly common in small town mid-state areas where COVID shot up prices and then fell flat when rates skyrocketed over the last 12-18 months.Mid-Term rentals are always +/- depending on time of year and how the property is marketed.

I currently have a home in a small town in the deep south that is worth about 40,000, if that.

After that, I can request a CO from the town and then make it easy for me to rent or sell it.

Understand the West Texas market dynamics, such as transient workforces in towns like Midland, Odessa, or Lubbock, and research growth potential.

Since you are in "E-town", you are in Lancaster County, and Sam W. has already posted the Lancaster County tax assessor website (I'll link it here):http://lcapp1.co.lancaster.pa.us/aoweb/But "E-town" is really close to a few other counties: Lebanon, Dauphin, York and Cumberland.

This one is in a small town outside of a very large city. 

Also purchase price is probably $5mil and up for a single family house, so that could be a limitation for many investors.Since you are in the DFW area, I'd say there is probably no better place to invest than right here in your home town. 

However, I have some reservations about buying a house before seeing how things shake out after Feb 2nd for a few reasons: - Towns seem very unclear about how they will adopt this new law.