Thanks so much guys, you have opened my eyes to some things i overlooked and didn't even consider.

No private eye required.

The first post I looked at was yours which caught my eye since I'm in Austin as well.

From $500k-$999k there are a few more sets of eyes that review the loans so it takes a few extra weeks.

He claims that he has estimated it out to be about $10-12k of work left, but I figured it would be better to overestimate the repairs initially until I actually get my eyes on the property.

Without any assets/equity or anything of value in the banks eyes, I am aiming for a short term goal of learning the process of buying, fixing and selling a property.

Amd they're not a big deal... uh, when you're paying to repave your neighbor's driveway every 2 years, or you find out you aren't allowed to park cars within 30 feet of the lot next door, but that's where the driveway is and now you can't offer parking to your tenants,  or maybe you lose 10 feet of your setback because you can't see all encroachments with your naked eye and now you can't develop the lot in the future without an expensive variance pricess. 

I am excited to be able to share what are wins in my eyes.  

My favorite contractors are the ones interested in investing in real estate - they tend to look at the project through a different set of eyes. 

I had my eye on this house for years and inquired many times from the town about owner ship of which they said they had no clue... well it turned out the town had owner ship and put it up for auction for tax liens.