This issue is still being resolved I believe.A L/O that is with an occupant and where rental credits are applied is a financing agreement, you need to follow Dodd-Frank and Predatory Lender Laws with consumers (your tenants). 

If you  are seriously looking into buying this property and possibly using it as 2-unit now or in the future, I'd suggest spending $150-200 with a land development consultant who could explain to you the issues and challenges related to such rezoning process.All that said, City of Austin code enforcement is very complaint driven.

You're not going to cashflow on a water front property and you may have issues with seasonality and/or demand in a very tourist-driven area.If you have an idea of where you'd like to invest and what the numbers might look like, a good way to test the waters is to put an ad on craigslist showing a potential property with the rent you'd expect to get and see what kind of interest it gets.For my rentals in Louisville, over the past 6 years I've had anywhere from 2-3 emails a week to 30+ emails per day depending on the location, rental rate and time of year.

It creates potential for two-layer taxation and creates tax deductibility issues for losses. 

For a realtor to take a bird dog fee is a completely different issue all together.

Hello All,I have purchased my first two rental properties in my name, but have since decided to operate my business as an LLC going forward for liability reasons. Therefore, future properties will be purchased under t...

Joey,I might have the solution to your financing issue.  

Whether we inherit tenants from another property management company or owner, there are almost always issues - that's why the owner either hires us or wants to sell the property because bad tenants have turned their investment into a money pit.

Again this returns only 6%  One issue for me is with that cash tied up it can't be used on future opportunities, eg a flip.  

At one point you had to visit 2 different government departments to register.