You would be better off putting money into a fund that performs at 6% to 8% somewhere with appreciation. 

Too many rentals, too much deferred maintenance, no real budgets, not enough money in reserves.You can still get CapEx in condos....these are called "special assessments" .

Hard money loans don't seem to be in line with my strategy I like the DSCR route, but understand that would lock me in to 5+ unit deals.

Most can't and that's where money is often spent unnecessarily.

Never built in Houston before so take my feedback with a grain of salt but I'd put money on it being impossible to build a duplex from scratch for $125 a foot (including everything from drawings, engineering, permit fees, general conditions, labor, material, landscaping).Out here in AZ the builder cost is going to be $200 a foot at best, but add 20% on top of that for the client cost.

Curious why any tax pro would argue with that.If filing state tax returns did not take any time or money, then there is no harm in filing them.

I've used my own money so far and interested in learning more about the funding side of things.

You can still find homes in these markets, among others, that are priced between $160k to $275k that still provide passive income, allowing your residents to pay down your mortgage, cover your other expenses and still have excess money to either save in an account for future investing or pay down your existing mortgage faster. 

It also appears Investor's Edge may have rebranded from their old company name "Do Hard Money".Propstream screenshot:"Investor's Edge/Dohardmoney" screenshot: if its a reboot of Do Hard Money one would want to read all the threads on that Utah based company.

No one has any extra money to come up to the mountains it seems.