Not necessarily what you can do ahead of time to make it attractive but you can always advertise a TIA budget along with the asking rent so prospective tenants know you are willing to put up some money to improve it to their liking.  

Anything that doesn’t meet those threshold is too risky for me with borrowed money right now.If you can weather a 50 percent drop in revenue and have the means to cover the payment and get through construction then go ahead and do the new build.

We own an EV so it's a no-brainer for us when we visit. 

If you've got a good contractor then you're miles ahead of most.

As others have said, just go ahead and meet the minimum sq footages and try and not violate the other restrictions so that no one has cause to come after you for any violations.

As someone with vast rental experience in Austin, TX (and a resident of Dayton), I would suggest really conducting a PFS (Personal Financial Statement) ahead of time - if not already done - in order to better assess your purchasing capabilities, then we can dive deeper into the creative methods.Connect with me to discuss when it would be a good time to talk.

The only person who comes out ahead is the person who gives you the playbook and collects fees off of you. 

I would go with a company who has multiple properties under management (ideally over 500 to really get the benefits a scale, think cheaper maintenance visits, experience placing tenants, lots of investor experience, ability to find deals within the brokerage, massive marketing channels for properties, systems in place to handle problems, experience handling a massive amount of problems, discounts for bringing multiple properties to manage).Also, make sure your property manager is motivated, experienced, and growing! 

I want to invest in TX so that I can learn hands on from my first investing experience, so I have to re-visit my buy box.What I want to know - What did your buy box look like starting out?

Personally, I am ahead and real estate investing played a significant role in getting me there.