ER Physician sounds like I would only want to connect on a professional level thru your real estate! 

Firstly, as a realtor myself I would like to thank you for considering the time and energy your broker/agent is giving you.

January 2016 Houston Housing StatsHouston Real Estate Highlights in January Single-family home sales declined 2.1 percent compared to January, marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline;Total property sales were unchanged at 4,965 units;Total dollar volume was statistically flat at $1.2 billion;At 262,663, the single-family home average price reached its highest level ever for a January;At $200,000, the single-family home median price also achieved a January high;Single-family homes months of inventory climbed to a 3.3-months supply versus 2.5 months a year earlier;Townhomes/condominium sales rose 15.6 percent with the average price unchanged at $183,076 and the median price up 2.4 percent to $140,000;Leases of single-family homes rose 2.8 percent with rents up 4.2 percent at $1,742;Leases of townhomes/condominiums climbed 12.2 percent with rents up fractionally to $1,568.

Currently there is a building for sale ($60,000) on our main street, which on the lower level hosts one of the towns most popular bars and on the upper level has 2 apartments that need major renovation.

So I am substituting that for interacting on BP.I am an entry level investor.

When I approach the tenant upstairs about the issue, she says that she only does it to send the signal to the tenants downstairs to keep their noise level down. 

I think the first step for me will be to just kindly ask the tenant to be more considerate of the amount of energy they're using...

Lots of new MF has come/will come onto the market, causing rents to level off a bit.  

But entry level is flying

This is what makes this very tough for a homeowner to buy something to live in. as they get lazer focused and it never goes to sale. they waste time and energy chasing it.And if its LA if there is any equity at all you will have massive competition..For due diligence simply order a preliminary title report for a few hundred and that will tell you the story.. some auction sites will publish the TSG  but not all.good luck