I have two in the panhandle.  

As we improved the building, we notified the tenants that they were going to have to pay market rents...and ALL of them moved out (they were very angry that we have the 'nerve' to raise their rents).Two years and $150K of improvements later, we had the building fully leased on triple net leases at market rates and we sold it for $2M.

Only issue might be the budget.I think the two main questions I’m trying to answer for now are: 1) Do I want to do short term rentals to increase chase flows or long term so it’s a bit less day-to-day work?

I have two options in mind:1.

You have to be zoned for a two family so read the town website building code posting to see what is allowed. 

You might end up hearing "no" from the first 10 you call but you only need 1 "yes"If you can find a run down property in a sought after area, and create equity in it through a rehab, you've got two paths forward after that... refinance as you've said or even just sell at a profit if you can't get the refi.The critical piece is running your numbers on the rehab as accurately as is possible.

@Jonathan Marsh, Stop for a min and define your goal or at least your objective with this property.Do you foresee coming back to Austin to live and possibly move back into this townhome?  

Furthermore, Intel is spending 20 Billion dollars to build two semiconductor plants, and many more great things presently and coming in the future.

His network has (at least) two tiers of membership.

I ask because I have two subject-to deals on the vine, one I'm closing next week and the other shortly after.