@Richard Schubert If the house next door is a solid enough deal you could always raise the money from people in your network to tie it up.

I also just go done taking a Alan Cowgill course on raising money to help fund my deals.

I'm a Tyler native.. born and raised there.

Do a toilet bowl test , put food coloring in the toilet tanks and check for bad flapper valve . 

Born and raised here. 

But that raises an interesting question—how would you even go about finding a good uncredentialed expert?

With STRs provided he passes "material participation" test and some other restrictionsB.

The 500 hours test for material participation test has 0 to do with your W2 job. 

So yeah after quite a bit of research into options I have decided I will be deploying a semi aggressive strategy with them to raise $$$. 

Recent sale of the assessed property is de facto value.Expert is needed for anything else.They can raise the value if you appeal.Comparable sales only count if they were closed before the lien date which is one year prior to the tax bill date.