I live in California but am looking to invest in Texas, Alabama.  

The current owner lives there and had someone paying to a trailer in the back yard all the way in the back. 

You pay a bit more, but you get exactly what you want and don't have to worry about maintenance for a while which is obviously a savings.I live in the Woodlands, so considering the location of my home and rental property, I'd ideally like to build this in the area of The Woodlands, Conroe, Spring, Tomball, Klein, or Cypress. 

(But not for a “I’m going to live in it 50 weeks out of the year and rent it out two weeks”, IMHO, if that was your idea.  

I've been in Austin since 1992 and it's an awesome city to live and work.

Are the kids walking around the living room? 

Even if the rental has a decent cash flow with additional flood insurance, we're still not sure we want to take on that risk as we are out-of-state investors (planning to move back to KY in the future, but not now) and we don't like that it will potentially bring down the perceived value when we try to sell it in the future.The seller has never lived there and has not provided any information on if it has flooded before or not. 

(I actually didn't get my laptop/phone hooked up to it, because I live here.

I live approx 60 miles north of Atlanta.

My ultimate goal is to live in it until I can buy a second property and then backfill my first property with a tenant.