Texas is the last place I would personally buy a rental if I did not live in Texas for all the reasons you mention add in soil problems and hail storms etc..

The existing tenants have mentioned separately (this is an up/down duplex) of smell of mold.This is not difficult to believe if in fact there are these obvious cracks on the home exterior.There is no doubt water/moisture is getting into the home and creating a condition for mold to grow.We had a structural engineer out to do our buyer’s inspection yesterday, report is due out later this evening (11/04/17).Verbal communication while on site, indicated a mutually shared concern over these cracks.The roof appears fine.A wall in the backyard will need replacing as the soil weight has almost pushed this wall over and it is only a matter of time before this thing comes falling over.Boiler may need replaced, windows as there is some clear cold.These are just concerns at this time but inspection report will lay all this out once received later today.I should have been a little smarter in not agreeing to a change in inspection objection deadline when it was presented by seller.My buyer’s agent and I should really have talked this one over, as I realize now that, it left us with only hours after inspection to come up with our inspection objection response and to be honest I will not have time to get bids for any of the extensive repair items which I do not doubt will be confirmed in the report received later today.Seeking any advice that you can give on the following: Would you proceed with purchase of the above detailed home?

Not sure what kind of soil, air, environment goat heads thrive in out in Idaho. 

My office is at Denton Tap and Sandy Lake.

Most likely due to soil moving or settlement.

I am in the process of finding a deal in the Sandy Springs, GA area and looking for a good contractor to work with.

You can also call local small and midsize GC's for their budget guidance on hard costs.You can do a very simple proforma as follows:Revenue from salesLess Broker fees for condo sales, closing costs for unit sales, warranty costs for units salesLand, closing costs for land, broker fees for landSoft costs, architecture, civil eng, MEP/S engineering, soils report, Phase 1 if needed, developer insurance, prop. taxes during const., marketing, subdivision costs, HOA formation and reservesHard costs - GC contract costs, overhead, profit, insuranceDevelopment impact fees, permit fees, school fees, park fees, etc.Loan costs for const. loan, interest carry, loan fees, appraisal costs, lender legal, funds controlDeveloper feeEquals (what's left) - developer profit, normally shared between equity investor and developer. 6.

I have been able to obtain a HELOC with Sandy Spring bank, but then learned that I can't use it like a checking accounts.

will also depend partly on which market, western Washington for the example has notoriously bad soils which would require far more scrutiny than somewhere like Colorado for example.

Hire and manage a design team, including architect, landscape architect, civil engineer, soils engineer, to produce the initial design concepts and schematic plans necessary to complete the entitlement process.