This really turned into a money gimmick it seems. 

The house is paid in full but, by renting it out, you're not cash flowing anything or maybe just a little if you bumped the rent?

The two units are currently accessible to each other by doors.

(Other financing arrangements might be possible.)You can only obtain one home equity loan per year, even if you have fully paid off the prior home equity loan.Regulation of LendersTexas restricts who may lawfully issue a home equity loan.An unlicensed person is not permitted to make a home equity loan unless that individual is either related with the borrower to the second degree, or is the seller and is providing financing for the property.A home equity loan must be secured only by the home itself, and the lender may not attach the loan to any additional assets as collateral.

We were able to keep it off our DTI after 12 months by having the mortgage come out of our partners bank account.

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When a "hold over" turns into a squatter, hilarity ensues. ;-)

For outbound, you’ll need to get lists of addresses and tons of data from platforms that pull county records on a daily basis like bathleads and propstream so you can filter those records more easily by potential motivation indicators like foreclosure, eviction, probate, etc.

I’m not scared away by the water and the structure appears sound and safe. 

By that I mean - yes you may take what seems like a bigger hit selling the property at a loss but then it clears you to take what you learned, and the money you did get back, and move onto something else with this experience and education you got from tackling this project.