People desperately want to live in central Austin and may be willing to sacrifice space...but not space AND walkability. 

You will need to wait until it is desperation time for the seller and just build a rapport with some cold calling until its time for them to sell!

Unless the seller is desperate to get out of the deal they are not going to give you a 30yr/4%/0 down.

you are offering to lend them 255,000 with only 2% down....no freakin way i'm doing that without seeing credit and tax returns..make sure you get as much proof as possible..it's better to hold out for the best possible buyer than to get desperate and put somebody in the house...this will cause more trouble when you have to foreclose on them...

We have since learned that the building needed some desperate repairs before we could, with a good conscience, rent it out again. 

Your best options for finance are: 1) seller financing (tough to get but something many sellers in the US will offer if they are desperate enough to sell) 2) equity in your current property 3) find a US lender that will lend to you.

From what you've described, I would budget more than 25k in repairs unless you want to deal with desperate tenants and deferred maintenance.

If you do decide to sell and can hold off until March, otherwise you're selling from a position of desperation since it's winter time.

Unless you are renting to desperate people, nobody prefers a crap hole.

Few buyers means sellers are more desperate than they were before.