When that’s not enough they go after personal assets, if your rental is in your personal name it’s targeted.

I've never gone down to actually see them, but they are on the cusp of my financial targets.

The rental market here seems to be cooling and it's hard to pencil deals even if I rent by the room to achieve higher than average rents.

This is often achieved with written documentation, such as a formal ROW request from TxDOT or other correspondence indicating that condemnation proceedings were possible if no settlement was reached.

I'd also learn a lot about maintenance and managing tenants.Then, with my hands-on experience, I could decide if I wanted to repeat the process or target 5+ units - which my experience would help with lenders.Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

A lot of my clients buying in FL are happy with minimal return but are buying for second homes, tax benefits, etc.I would stick with value add - with refi you can still achieve high CoC and a good equity position. 

Cons I would say are achieving financing.

Write targeted letters yourself saying you own and live in a multi in the area and are looking to expand.

At least that way, in the event you never get your entire principal back (targeted within 5 years, although they'll make a best efforts attempt to get you out sooner penalty-free after 12 months (slight penalties months 1-6 and 6-12)), they still got to collect their management fee along the way.  

I would have focused on the highest paying W2 I could find/achieve as early as possible in a field I enjoyed;2.