It is easy to get to from the west side (Just cross the river at Montano) and relatively easy to get to for the east side folks.What topic would you guys like for February? 

This counts to!

Sounds like office makes up a big part of this mixed use building.A lender will count this a mixed use and not straight retail.

Since this is my first go round with pre foreclosures, I want to make sure I cross my T's and dot my I's.

I only know that Texas RE law is one of the strangest I have ever dealt with and that the above law firm was the one my company trusted to make sure we did not cross one of the very unique laws in Texas.

However, it won't count for me who has not personally guaranteed the loan.  

Based upon my limited experience with real estate  financing in other countries (4), this is an anomoly and it is more common to find mortgage terms that are a fraction of the amortization - requiring that the mortgage be renewed/refinanced at least once.Even if you were to lock-in a residential mortgage at these low rates, you should count on your future opportunity cost of capital (i.e. major CAPEx expenditures) to increase and build your financing and operation model accordingly.

They are the ones that will be counting on you to come back to buy more from them, so to balloon the numbers is not only an injustice to you, but to themselves as well.  

I'm just not seeing price/rent ratios working for most of these developments and I can't count on price appreciation in either in the short-medium term.

Also if you do not have a lease in place than your rental income may not be counting toward your debt to income.