Dallas is a very investor heavy market, so you'll need to talk to a lot of sellers to find one who is motivated.

I would let her know that you are putting cameras up and will be tracking who is coming or going- maybe double check the lease and make sure that there is a provision for overnight guests in case she tries to pull that card (usually leases specify how often and for how many nights).

It's extremely heavy, time consuming to install, and much, much expensive than drywall. 

Beware of "Handyman Specials"1a) On your search for a property to rehab, understand there is a difference between properties that need minor-medium rehab vs. heavy/handyman specials/skeletons-in-the-closet properties.

@Shawn Connors  I recently started with www.SmartZip.comI don't have enough history to say much more, but they are VERY heavy into analytics. 

Sure, you can buy stocks/options on margin, but you don’t get margin calls in RE when bad news happens overnight.

But I think we can look back over the last 40 years and see quite a few times when situations just like this have happened in the rental markets and overnight things changed. 

My thought was instead of buying the unit through an HVAC company, plus their markup, paying them to take it off the truck, put it in place, hook up all the lines, charge with freon, etc, that I could do the heavy lifting and only pay them for the work I'm not qualified to do.

They seem to be very top heavy on operations and mid to upper management while completely low balling the maintenance and property management side of the business where it counts the most-- cleaning crews and those who oversee them.My husband and I used Vacasa to help manage our Sonoma County vacation rental and when they 1st took it on --we had a score of 4.9 on Airbnb but under their 'care' within 6 months--watched it fall to below 4.5..

More risk = Higher potential returnBelow are the typical risk-for-return classifications for a standard commercial investment:Opportunistic - Lease up vacant space / heavy renovation / change property use - +20% Internal Rate of Return (IRR)Value Add - Some lease-up risk, short-term leasing risk, some renovation, Increase rents - +15% IRR.Core Plus - 5-year + lease term with under-market rents, increase rents to market, minimal to no reno - 12 - 15% IRR.Core - New building with strong tenant on a long-term lease - 8 - 12% IRR.Timelines for these will vary as well.