The process has been difficult and stressful and we almost gave up a few times. 

Do you have other ways to decrease your expenses or increase your income aside from real estate? 

You could have 10 of these, and they get progressively difficult.  

In my area these are rare so they are difficult to set market rent, and I imagine get a lot of wear and tear with a lot of occupants living there. 

Do you find it difficult to network?

I would not eliminate OKÇ based on tornadoes, that is why you carry insurance.It will very difficult to find something in Austin that fits your budget.  

They have had a difficult year and are struggling to make their payments on time each month.

.- Working a W2 as a firefighter, posting and consuming content- Leaving my W2 to dive deep into real estate investing and working as an agent... and still watching/posting content all while business was ok - Deleting social media apps (one have one on my phone that I use 10 minutes or less a day), diving deep into building my business and skills which have drastically increased due to pure focus and increasing my business significantly- moral of the story... focus on the things you need to do in business (dollar productive activities) and life experiences while reducing consumption will increase your success  

You know this and the reason I am saying that I am considering in getting a real state license is the connections, the access to listing off market and possibility of earning commission that I can use to increase my portfolio.I think that being an investor agent will help me build a reputation and that can be good or bad.

If we can complete projects faster, we increase IRR and build trust.3) Market Risk- The longer it takes to complete a project, the more exposed you are to market fluctuations.This goes for all things Real Estate - BRRRRs, Flips, New Builds, Rehabs, etc.Real Estate is a wild ride I feel your pain, I've had this happen many times where the project is twice as long.