@Daniel JarvisI understand the difficulty of finding comps.  

Like yourself, the States looks very attractive, but as a new investor, I think it makes sense to stay above the border to take out that added layer of difficulty. 

I agree with @Anthony Ciulla that getting proper permits after completing construction is typically not easy as inspecting things to verify after completion is difficult.  I

In short if the home looks clean and move in ready and is listed at a fair price you shouldn't have to much difficulty filling the home in the Austin market.

I haven't looked into the difficulty in getting a mortgage.

Like everything else though much of it will boil down to good numbers *plus* your experience in real estate investing in general *plus* your experience with investing in that particular area *plus* your ability to weather through potential difficulties.

And they either have all-cash (looking for BARGAINS only), or, THEY may have difficulty finding a Lender.Meaning, your pool of prospective Buyers who are happy to pay the full $40k ARV, can be very small!

The problem is that I'm not experienced in real estate, which adds further difficulty to compete for deals in a booming city.

The only tax benefit lost when investing in syndicated offerings is the 1031 exchange (which can sometimes be salvaged, albeit with significant limitations and difficulty).  

How difficult is it to transfer title from LLC 1 to LLC 2 and LLC 3?