Account Closed  You can take the standard deduction, or calculate your itemized deductions on Schedule A - things like interest you paid on mortgage for your primary home (that you live in), property taxes also paid on your primary home, charitable contributions, medical expenses (over a certain amount), etc .  

You absolutely need to know who is going to rent from you, how much can they afford, do they need schools, medical care and so forth.  

The residents of her area are on a strict lockdown to where she cannot leave the house unless for medical emergency.

Biggest issue is how you fund medical care since that's probably THE biggest excuse for taxes (maybe after schools).As far as deficits go, Cali has every kind of tax and they are ALWAYS short of funds for stuff like schools. 

No notice required for an emergency entry.

And it someone where to die or have a serious medical injury on your property the medical and attorney fees could easily climb above your umbrella policy.

Although there is a lot of missing info to give you solid advice, the only option given the circumstance is to use about 75% of that cash to buy properties, keep the rest for reserves and emergencies, pay a property manager and use the cash flow, whatever that might be in your market, for living expenses and hopefully what's left to save up for new properties. 

Professionally, I have been working in the medical field for the past 8 years, and I am finally at a point where I can shift focus to build a real estate portfolio.

What I'm saying is I think Austin is a diverse enough economy with lots of demand to live here from tech, university, government, medical and manufacturing industries to name a few.

Most investors have no emergency fund and covid should have taught us nothing is certain anymore.