The red tape that comes with this loans makes it virtually impossible to work with any but a select group of GCs who specialize in these kind of projects.

This is not an advertisement....Commercial(Not in residential zone)Garage door access(but not a tire and lube shop)Small office/Small customer entry area.Minimal square footage. 

You can control the size of the area by the +/- map size, use a square foot range and control the time frame by choosing 30, 60, 90 days.

Austin is an island of blue among the red of Texas but that isn't real constraints like a peninsula nor an island like Manhattan.  

It was good that you picked this up as a red flag.

I used express.realquest.com as my market analysis/comparbles as you can see below where I got the offer from.Summary Critieria Low High Median Subject Property Sale Price $50,000 $355,000 $131,250 $62,000 Building / Living Area 1,273 1,630 1,382 1,468 Price Per Square Foot $37 $243 $90 $42 Year Built 1967 2008 1984 1984 Lot Size 732 1,812 1,368 1,468 Bedrooms 2 3 2 2 Bathrooms 2 4 3 2.5 Stories 1 2 2 2 Assessed Value $70,000 $268,400 $97,600 $95,100 Distance from Subject 0.25 0.65 0.62 Address Price Assessed Sale Date Beds Baths SqFt Lot Size Year Dist

Depending on the level of renovation depends on your permits and price per square to renovate whether lite rehab or full renovation.Make sure your GC is licensed correctly with the City and Insurance is all good.

Again, I've been told that they are out there pre-listing if you know the right people and get your offer in quick, but we're waiting for our financing to get squared away before we start waving cash around.

Walk .... nay, Run ... away from this trouble.Bad credit, offering to pay several months upfront {which cannot be legally accepted in some jurisdictions} is a HUGE red flag!

What you need to do is have WF order a payoff from the current lender and they will verify that you don't have any 30 day lates.That is a big red flag in my opinion.