@Eric LeBlancWe have done well investing in the Spring area - One thing that helped our bottom line was to reduce our expenses by investing in areas that have lower tax rates - we moved completely out of Harris County to Montgomery County and found further savings by buying in neighborhoods without a MUD tax - we effectively reduced our expenses by one percent or more (which is like having an extra month of rent).Good Luck and Happy Investing,

Add a wide trim board at the bottom to frame the large peak. 3.

Proper siding generally withstands pressure washing, which hits it with heavy PSI and at the opposite angle of what is normal (from the bottom). 

Not sure how much tear down is, how much a decent new house build cost is, what hoops and cavaets and hiccups occur when a rookie is building a brand new home from top to bottom, without an established constructor crew.

Bottom-line, if you ran your numbers thru the calculator with accurate projections as a rental (not as a owner-occupant) and show negative cash flow, I would avoid ithe properties in questions and keep grinding. 

An exception to this may be where one of the units is a commercial unit like where you have a store on the bottom floor and 2 residential units upstairs. 

I also bought condos specifically for buy and hold in 2011-2013 when condo prices bottomed out in my area.

Bottom line is you dont sound ready to handle this and should probably just give it back and move on to get this person out of your life, how does she even know where you live?

It is a top/bottom style duplex with a flat roof and a basement so there should be no issues around ducting. each floor is around 1,100 sq ft  Any idea how much I should be looking to get this quoted for?  

I thought this issue was resolved it is not resolved now I had to have a wall rebuilt that was ate up with mold luckily I have caught the water early this time and cut the drywall back so the only mold food is the bottom wood beam.