Personal friend is a plumber and he uses a system of pressurizing the system and injecting liquid plastic to seal it all up - - 20 year warranttee.Here in our locale, slabs frequently crack due to soil expansion and when fixing one of these, we jack-hammer the interior and r/r all the plumbing at one time.

I don't believe they are bad investments as maximizing ROI is also important and many of those places have very healthy appreciation but if you are looking for positive cash flow we will need to stay in certain areas of Austin or head to Cedar Park, Round Rock, Kyle, etc which are still within 30 min from downtown Austin.

This probably goes without saying but also looking for a good CoC return and healthy cash flow (doesn’t everyone want this haha).Is there an industry publication which shows good markets which fit these criteria?

I will allow them to cure the cat problem by also obtaining professional carpet cleaning which specializes in cleaning carpets with cat urine and soil, and perhaps a warranty against cat odors.

But as landlords we have a responsibility to provide healthy homes for tenants (and ourselves). 

What do you generally do in poor soil conditions ( if you have run into this.... ) a structural basement, or crawlspace?

i know you don't have much to go on but budget wise, do yo think 15-20k is a healthy budget?

If you don't want the property, You will then most likely be able to sell it at a healthy profit.

It has never been anything big, just selling old houses he used to live in at a healthy profit and once took his girlfriends house (which was costing her $750 a month) and set her up with a professional management company who got the building to turn a $400 a month profit off rent.

I think rates will increase slightly in 2016 which will lower buying power slightly but I do not expect to see huge jumps as the rest of the economy can't withstand such increases.I think we will see further stabilizing in the market and healthy appreciation rates of 5%- 10% annual for 2016.