Hi @Garrett Kula - In my opinion, mindset and awareness of why you want what you want is BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT thing any one can figure out. 

I’d love to eventually have a portfolio of rental properties, so just trying to figure out the best path forward.

They are often too complicated for tenants to figure out, they have too many ways to fail, and they are often easier to circumvent than a standard key lock.I use Schlage electronic door locks with a simple numeric keypad.

You are left with smaller margin of equity in your rental and figuring out the new property you added.

The asking price is on the higher side and I am trying to figure out what is a lower side reasonable offer price. 8 br, 4 bath, basement (not finished, laundry). 0.5 miles from Temple.

This is part of the "due diligence" period, and it is so important.My advice would be to figure out the demand in the area for larger spaces.  

You have the management piece figured out, revenue side looking up, and the area is good.

They could have gone to the library for free or tried to figure out other things. 

I figured later after I found out what the low bid was, that whoever got it lost an easy $100k. 

Figure out what you want, then work backwards.