Any deal that (not said literally ) requires you to go to church every Sunday and pray for a good outcome is a deal that's not good enough. 

Are the appliances good enough?

The work was good enough but you definitely get what you pay for.

For $125k - $150K you can buy two properties with $300/month positive cash flow each, making $600/month on the same money, have them managed as LTR and no hope required about market movements.If we are all here on BP are correct and interest rates will come down in the next 18-24 months, you could refi those two properties and increase cash flow even further.I even have a way to get you up to three properties for the down payment you are willing to make if you are willing to reduce cash flow a little (still remaining positive)In my opinion the ratio of rent to purchase price is not good enough in Austin to make it work, even as MTR and with 95% occupancy

At the end of the day I felt the return was not good enough. 

To me, this is good enough for quality of work.You need to negotiate hard with contractors on labor cost. 

If you don’t feel comfortable managing yourself, find s good enough deal that you can hire management.

I ship worldwide and report a good enough income on taxes to back investing.

It's a great rental market because not many people can afford dps or have good enough credit to get loans.

It is not impossible but harder for sure.It comes down to the economic fundamentals and if the deal is good enough to take the risk.