I know this is a bit older of a thread, but if anyone's still following it and looking in the area, I live here (actually looking at the lake, or what's left of it, as I type this), and have myself and a couple of partners (and reliable contractors) looking to really get going on both STR's and LTR's between here, New Braunfels, and San Marcos.

Hey all,I will be extending an offer tonight for a multi-family home that I would be living in.

Or go the route of buying a single family, doing some upgrades, live in it for at least 12 months and a day and then pull out some equity to go buy another and rent that one out.

It's been rezoned to allow a live/work component, allows 4 units, and the FAR allows room for plenty of additional SF. 

I have been investing in real estate for over 30 years and I currently live in Hilton Head.

I know you said that you don’t want to self manage because you’re not living there.

In terms of the mortgage is there an amount of time you do have to live there?

It's hard to get an accurate ROI the way you are asking as you lived there so you have paid the mortgage on it for a number of years which will skew the numbers...At this point look at the cash flow and base the cash on cash return off of your down payment and current monthly expenses..OR, look at it another way, how many years or renting it will it take to get your initial down payment back?

Turning your garage into living space is not as difficult as you think.

I BELIEVE usda loans are meant to be for your rural primary home, even if it was a 160acre corn farm their rauirement is simply you live there.