Since Texas is a tax deed state, you gain ownership at auction, but the previous owner has 6 months to 2 years to redeem it by paying your bid plus 25% interest (in year one).

I pay $875 (including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) and rent it out for $1,625.

I used $80k to pay off personal debts and $50k to remodel it by myself with my two hands.

It's pretty common practice to have something like that in a property management agreement, and if it falls under that limit they're going to pay it and not notify the owner except in regular monthly updates because it is below the threshold of what is an ordinary expense in the course of business.

You want an investment that pays for itself, including mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and even some money set aside for a reserve to cover vacancies and capital expenditures.

@Michelle Hardy Just adding, check your local city too for their requirements, many have specific requirements that the state may not have.Here in VT in the towns my properties are in, there is not a requirement to keep them separate or pay interest. 

Purchase price: $275,000 Cash invested: $294,000 Sale price: $355,000 Seller was behind on pay HOA payments and in risk for losing the property.

That will increase your material costs for the job and is the contractor paying for the material in their bid or are you paying for it and paying them a labor cost.

I would rather invest in safe markets that produce a good return, then I can use that income to pay for a vacation anywhere in the world.I'm very pessimistic about the STR market in Hawaii.

Namely, that if a tenant (in this case accompanied by a whole family) ends up stop paying rent and I would be on the hook for both covering the mortgage and dealing with open ended legal costs and time.