This included a house going up in flames, a nightmare of an insurance claim and then eventually a 1031 exchange into a dream-of-a-student-rental house.

That is not recession resistant, nor is it very fun to own and operate. 

Of all the lease violations you listed the path of least resistance to an eviction is non payment of rent. 

I'm not even sure where to start, and our property manager was resistant to giving us "advice" due to potential liability is what it sounded like, and that's okay I suppose.Can anyone help us out?

Is it really water resistant for a bathroom or a kitchen?

This is not flame bait, and I am not saying you're wrong.

And if that happens then the whole thing blows up.If you want something recession proof then you need to be investing in an asset class that is uncorrelated with business cycles (litigtion finance, life settlements, royalties, etc) and even then usually you're only getting at best "extremely recession resistant".

What would you do to make your offer the very strongest, without adding fuel unnecessarily to this faux-flaming Texas market.P/SI am getting tripped by the new calc.

I am getting my windows replaced at ~$600 each, including the impact resistent/hurricane whatever features.

I would also have to say that you can find cash flowing rentals both places for 20-25% down, but they certainly aren't falling from the sky; an asking price is just an asking price and you need to be able to act very quickly when the right one comes available so get a pre-approval from a lender before you start looking seriously.Brick and stone are preferred facade materials for heat reflection and wind resistance.