It's doable, but it's probably going to feel pretty stressful.

I don't buy in Austin but I know I stress-test my scenarios (where I have commercial mortgages) and look at a really bad scenario:  "What if my collected rents (either by vacancy or demand drop) decrease by 20% in 5 years and mortgage rates are at 7%?"  

Amount of work/stress involved compared to long term rentals?

I can't stress that enough.

It wasn't all just how someone lucked out and became a success, but it also revealed the mistakes and stressful situations he got into.

What is material is that any investment decisions that are made are stress-tested.  

Remember everyone has a frame of mind, the realtor wants to sell, the inspector wants to impress with his detailed findings, the PM wants to rent the unit out with as little effort/turnover/maintenance as possible - so you are able to get a detailed look through many different frames just make sure you are dealing with people you have researched and trust.I know how stressful it is to buy the first because there is a lot of pressure on something new - and only having one leaves the business vulnerable, but as long as the numbers are great and you do your due diligence then you should be fine.

You can run your own stress-test scenarios to see how your prospective purchase would fair and different debt levels.This is all, of course, assuming you don't want to "walk away" (read: default) on a property.

According to the crime heat map, these neighborhoods aren't vey pleasant, but I know those maps don't necessarily mean the neighborhood is bad.

I've noticed that when a deal is advertised the seller almost always will mention that the unit(s) is already leased out as a benefit, however in the books I've read and the podcasts I've listened to investors have stressed the importance of not inheriting tenants.I'm curious to know what people's experiences and two bits are on this, and maybe an explanation as to why sellers boast to have fully rented out units in their listings.