It is only a job, as soon as a landlord allows any snippet of emotions into their decision making process they are no longer able to make rational business decisions.

@Michael Avillion- sound rational and good thinking as  you  will need some time to  get a feel of the area  and  opportunities

Rent collected for year = $10,175.Holding out for that extra $50 or $75 a month is costing you a lot more than whatever you think you might be losing by holding out for months for a marginally higher rent.It sounds like you already know the local rent should be lower, but you're rationalizing your higher price by mentioning the age of the building. 

Hopefully they ease restrictions, but I would expect for anything that approaches rationality to be thwarted by the all-powerful forces in Austin that have been driving up costs and prices for end-buyers for decades.  

Most newer property, single house/plex/condo, are at about 0.5 ration, so essentially it is barely break even, or you may end up paying out of your pocket for $100 a month.

While I'm not sure that we are looking at the commercial loan explosion that @Mark Whittlesey referenced above, we could at the very least be looking at higher debt servicing costs that will eat up a bigger portion of the available cash flow.Again, the goal of this post is not to fear monger, but simply to look at rational strategies going forward for new multifamily purchases in a potential new rate environment.

If my main objective was to lock out other buyers in a neighborhood (and I don’t want to own it all, as much as I just want lots not to be sold from the current owners), couldn’t I overpay for a few properties to distort the market price above what a rational buyer would pay?

My rational to move beyond this concern was that I thought a 20 year investment would definitely suggest some challenges for this market. 

They may rationalize it as giving you a better price by not paying taxes, but that just means you are aiding them in tax fraud.

I feel a little better about how I filed and will be better able to make a rational decision about doing anything else after I've spoken to the pro.