Have short rafters between the roof and the pergola.Cover the concrete steps and landing with a very simple, natural stone material.If code allows, enclosing the area under the deck would provide a good bit of storage space.

Check your building code in Texas.  

This will take you to a list of the counties in that state, click on the desired county or type the city and state or zip code into the box below and it will tell you which county to click on.Once at the right county, you will find the links to the local property assessor's site, register of deeds/clerk of courts, tax collector's site, along with mapping and gis sites etc along with phone numbers to their offices if they don't have a site.  

Garland just has strict code compliance.

It is easy to do on average using some rules of thumb, but as you stated moving these larger cash flows forward or backward 5 years can alter your analysis significantly; especially if your investment duration is under when the cash flow would occur2.

You want to keep people from using your property a as cut through.Setting up even a fake camera with a sign with the county or city code on it that dumping is illegal. this site is monitored, and violaters will be prosecuted helps curb things.

Know that codes have changed so even if it held with what was there it may require extensive modifications to meet current code.You might look into it for the land value.

If it is not up to legal code, you should seek a discount.

Hi Joan,The property has been held as a rental property and therefore would qualify for tax-deferred exchange treatment under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code.

I have found some great spread sheets on the site and some software, but nothing seems to summarize all the reviewed properties on a single sheet to allow comparisons within a zip code or area.