The biggest challenge was closing as COVID-19 was hitting the population and beginning renovations on the property while preparing to reside in it and both of us deploying in the next year.

@James Kim I think that @Dan Heuschele and I agree that cash flow is not the biggest contributor to ROI and you have a high ROI but not a high cash flow on this property so far and likely in the future.

In theory yes and in the short term yes, the biggest gainers from remote working trends will be outlying areas like Santa Cruz, Napa etc versus out of state location s like Montana or Idaho etc.But I also think once Covid talk dissipates office culture will take over and old habits WILL return.

That is the biggest mistake tenants make when they are unable and don't plan to pay is staying in the property.

Biggest part of the challenge is jumping in and doing it, you did that

The biggest watch out is property taxes - that part of town, esp newer developments, tend to have higher tax rates due to MUDs/PIDs/WCIDs.

Hi @Danielle Scott, I believe you should look at an FHA 203k loan as it allows you to finance in $35k for rehab while still potentially only putting down 3.5%. https://www.guildmortgage.com/ seem to look like a pretty option as they do FHA loans and some of the Texas incentive programs - I have never used them so please make your own decision.

"I noticed a lot of short sales popping up"My biggest issue, if it is listed, is the RE agent is almost always a rep of the owner and NOT the bank.This means that an owner just wants out, but unless the broker is working for the bank, you'll probably have to do the due diligence of finding the right person at the lender to approve the deal.  

The biggest question is just the debt. 

Continue to use 3rd party people so your resident has no incentive to "find" items that are broken and you don't have liability issues as noted by @Jeff Copeland"I also wanted him to pay full rent before I paid for another service call."