After the purchase agreement was signed, but before closing, the listing agent gave the buyer’s agent a copy of the drawing that showed 3,500 square feet.

What are the draw backs to selling your own house?  

A different siding color will draw attention to the architectural style, then you can have a contrasting front door to make it really stand out.

Both involve ARV appraisals with bids from contractors, and both take into consideration the ARV.

Add in another $50k or more for cost of setting up the HOA, architectual drawings, title work etc.

The area was devastated from Oil & Gas downturn back then.Today's Houston looks nothing like that. 25 years of drawing other industries into the state of Texas has left us with an economy & population that Brookings Institute said was the 2nd largest growth area over the last decade (San Jose was #1) in the nation. 

Today, we are experiencing considerably more financing requirements than the past, and lenders are learning to actually use metrics to gage a person's ability to service debt and the underlying collateral, rather than simply originate, recycling the loan, then walk away. 100% financing to individuals w/ 600 FICOs is laughable these days, but was a reality in the past.

One additional consideration that no one raised....for anyone using online payments like Cozy....I recently had a tenant that submitted his payment. 

Further, should the current tenant (a single guy who doesn't mind paneling, worn carpet, old cabinets etc) move out, it would need considerable upgrades.

I have some considerable cash to invest and have been scouting properties for months in Denver.