A soil engineer will use a much deeper hole, often 7 to 10 feet or deeper, as they look for a high-water table and the presence of rock ledges or impermeable soil that could block water absorption.

@Yuzi Stha the vast majority of duplexes were built in Austin and Round Rock between the 1960's and 1990's, so you'll be in core neighborhoods with likely no HOA.

If she tells you to kick rocks then when you go to court you have ground to stand on and show you are doing your diligence. 

From people like Black Rock coming in to buy residential housing because almost every alternative is horrible right now....

HVAC is noted to be 2 years old, new stairs for second story, new sheet rock.

It is more than just the price of the house my man.It is the amount of risk, location, (no matter how amazing the house or how easy the flip, if the house is next to a loud bar, you are not going to be able to sell it again, and that is part of the amount you ask for it, and thus profits), it is about time to flip, time to market, time to sell.If you are only looking at the price of the house, and that justifies a $40K  profit flip... but you took 1 year to flip it, your monthly "salary" was $40K/12, which is not nearly enough.

According to Yardi Matrix which is a real estate data firm,  Austin metro Year over Year rent growth is 19.9%. The Forecasted rent  growth is 8.6%. The year over year job growth is 7.3%. Those are very healthy numbers!! 

Based on what you've described, this sounds like moisture on the surface of the wall, which would be caused by excess moisture in those areas from the Tenant not ventilating the bathroom while showering or cooking with a lot of steam in the kitchen area.A contractor can put a moisture meter in the sheet rock and quickly tell if there is any moisture inside.

Fortunately, at today’s rock-bottom mortgage rates, you can lock in a low interest rate and start building equity right away.Can you meet today’s higher standards for securing a mortgage?

Or $10-$20k on landscaping, either adding or removing grass/rocks, whatever and actually reduce the value if the buyers want what you removed ro don’t want what you added.