Hey @Aaron Washington, seeing as other STRs in your area also have game spaces, then you need to go that way as well.Really go to town on Craigslist, FB Marketplace and OfferUp.

Let’s assume the 4 bedrooms are 25% of the square footage of your home.Let’s say you make $80,000/year and you are in the 22% tax bracket.This will reduce the amount you have to pay on taxes over five years by: (Mortgage interest) x (tax bracket) x (the percentage of home used as rental) = $137,497 * 0.22 * 0.25 = $30,249.34 in tax savings.https://www.irs.gov/publications/p936https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/can-i-deduct-my-mortgage-related-expenses

Austin has seen some decreases in rents as supply has surged, CA and WA have complicated landlord laws.

Residential space would bring in more per square foot.

You can look at other recently sold houses in the area to see if the dollar per square foot cost of the one you were looking at lines up with what has been selling in the area recently. 

If its a big property, as in they have a large square footage of land and that is where the money is tied up, they can rent storage space, farming space, etc.  

Found an auction selling building supplies, i got enough 16’ stain grade pine crown molding for $0.25 ft plus 10% buyers premium to do a whole 2200 square house.

My long term goal is to buy within the next month, then within six months be ready to purchase our first BRRR or flip; likely out of state because Washington is a little wild with the real estate.

I've seen it time and time again where an investor rate shops only to get a horrible experience and the deal fall out, only to go back to square one and find another lender that can perform. 

$300 per square foot is rich.