You don't want the cheapest materials, go for middle of the road on quality. 4.

Client drove down to the property, in the middle of the night, 3 or 4 times a week for a period of about 6 weeks to try to "catch" the tenants in the act. 

I'm in East Texas, we are rather rural, as well...but staging helps sell your home quicker and for closer (if not over) your asking price. 

Some criteria we are looking for: Price of $350k or less, a townhome, or low HOA condo, or single family home, areas of North Burnet (Domain) or East Austin, close to future development or current public transport options, no/minimal renovations required to be rentable.Our goal would be to rent the property out to long term tenants.

I do these all of the time- if this is a rental, middle class sort of area; paint the cabinets, new hardware, new lighting, new appliances, resurface the counters and new flooring and all of the sudden it will look like a million bucks. 

East Lake and Ensley are my two favorite. 

It's just to the East of Downtown Tampa. 

You may also want to check out Plant City which is on the East side - however schools aren’t great...I’d watch REO sales to get a sense of what your ideal property would go for...  

I am doing exactly this with my duplex built over here on the east side.

After receiving no correspondence from whatsoever from the tenant, after the allowable 14 days (as stated by Alabama State law and the lease agreement), I went into the unit and it was all moved out except the smelly, outside bin for garbage and a pile of what appeared to be junk was in the middle of the living room.