If it costs me $150 ($100 purchase and $50 rehab) and it's valued at $140, and I cover the remaining 10K with cash, am I not breaking even?

For the 10 year period spanning May 2014 through May 2024, single-family prices in Austin nearly doubled, yielding an annualized appreciation rate of ~9.2% in that period.A 30-year fixed rate mortgage is sitting around 7% interest, which is down a bit from recent months, but still well above where we began 2024:The Fed monetary policy and rate decisions remain the biggest single driver of the residential real estate market overall.

If I want to use the STR tax loophole, would living in a different state affect the advantage of the so called STR tax loophole, as long as I remain active in managing the property and fulfill the other requirements?

Investors must remain in the club, paying dues for the life of their investment.

In 3-4 years, you will not have a lot of equity in the home, so I'm not sure you'd want to refinance (if you plan on trying that, talk the bank because ending your mortgage before the term is up (ie 1 yr, 2 yr) comes with a heavy interest penalty (basically you have to pay out all of the interest remaining for the rest of that term).As for renting vs investing elsewhere-run the numbers as to what your payments would be if you bought a house including insurance and property taxes and repairs vs renting. 

About 30k remaining in repairs, which I can either pay for in cash or take out a loan and pay off later with the 160k.

So the mortgage would remain unchanged but the ex could be removed from the deed?

In both of those situation the land remained whole as one tract essentially owned by the condo association (HOA) while the individual units were sold to individual owners. 

The median price of homes for sale this May remained relatively stable compared with last year, growing by 0.3% to $442,500.

Even if your mother approves using some equity from your home as a down payment for a second property, you will still need to qualify for the remaining amount needed for the purchase.