Found a realtor through a local (Houston TX) contact who helped her find a good tenant. I strongly believe in only hiring through verified contacts. That said, the realtor says he didn't have a contract with her and d...

Not something I typically get involved with so was curious as to what rent/room is in the area.

You can use it as an STR or LTR so rents are more of a win based on options.You want to be able to spread your capital around to more than one big investment especially when your NOI is going to be better on 2-3 versus one!

When I returned to live in the US I rented the condo exclusively to Americans.

Also ask them who gets to set rent amounts and the reno standards of their properties.

The strategic location and the low initial investment made it an appealing and lucrative investment opportunity.

@Brett Nissen what type of rent is the $125-175k price range getting?

You should be analyzing properties from Zillow to learn values & rents, to see what works. 

If we put the home on the market we would lose at least a month rent and utility cost.Some background on the property is that we put 120k towards a down payment at 6.125%.

Many lenders, including my group, offer a DSCR product to refinance on the back end as well.Before taking out a loan for a BRRRR project be sure to calculate all carrying costs (taxes, insurance, utilities, HOA, loan interest, etc.) to ensure (i) you have sufficient cash to cover monthly payments for at least the duration of the project and (ii) your estimated rent after repairs is at least 1.10x PITI (monthly refinance loan payment principal and interest, taxes and insurance).We have a proprietary BRRRR cash flow calculator tool that we share with our clients to help reliably assess costs and returns for these types of projects.