I've also designed the house so that I would want to live in it should the air bnb not work out.

With no heat nor running water in the unit, the water in the pipes cooled drastically, causing the water to expand and severely increase pressure inside the pipes.

Consider: 1. flying taxi (promised by Uber to be here within 5 years or less). 2. prefabs, containers and other structures delivered by air (in speedy fashion). 3. the distance from A to B via land traffic vs. air. 4. cities growing concern with financial cost of the abandoned land. 5. social mobility and tourism (social curiosity).

May not seem like beach weather but I guess lots of people prefer the open, fresh (if chilly in winter) mountain air ....Texas.

A lot of pressure!  

Ex: ($5000 / 3 months)As I stated in #2, the pressures of keeping track of your minimal spends can be difficult enough.

When I checked out the basement I found that a window had completely fallen out of place and all of the wind/cold air was blowing in (not sure how long this has been out) but I quickly replaced it and have used space heaters to keep the basement warm.

So they usually pressure you to get prequalified first.Which is fine, because it's important.

That man was a money pit.Not everybody can throw off 30 years of ingrained social, religious and family pressure to do what I did. 

Give yourself the gift of confidence and peace-of-mind that comes from having no pressure to perform before you are ready.