A lot of my clients want to get into real estate, but I’m not an expert on the investment side, so I’m looking for some advice.When it comes to using funding like this, what strategies do you think work best?

Unfortunately due to the business you choose to operate incidents like the one you experienced are more likely to occur compared to a property that's continually occupied by a tenant where the water would more likely be run at a higher frequency which would prevent the pipes from freezing.  

Then continue to scale - don't try and retire off one deal

My 2 cents is prices are crazy inflated right now, but believe it or not I think it will continue because of continued demand pressure for the area from people fleeing higher cost of living areas and moving there, with access to 87/17.

It's not to say I don't get sick and tired of stuff, but if it is worth it, I will continue to bang my head against the wall.

Dave Ramsey of course believes in having zero debt, but the money you are borrowing was fairly cheap so why not continue to leverage it?

I hired my own expert and discovered these issues did not exist but that the expert the 3 buyers had brought in wanted to be hired to do the work so they blew them out of proportion.

This area is going to see tremendous growth as the city of Bryan continues to expand on its Midtown plans.

What makes you an expert that the unit is in a great location & condition and the market is hot, relative to the property manager?

., asking questions, reading through the documents, etc.) and continue educating yourself via books and podcasts so that you can leverage that expertise to do your own deals in the future.