It's been 2 weeks and the kind of applications we are getting are far from ideal...bad credit scores, delinquencies, hard to figure out how much do they make (meaning self employed in some cases) are some of the issues that made me reject 4 applications so far.My property manager (who helped me buy the house) has posted the ad on all relevant websites, we have priced it at the lower end of the range at which similar homes are listed in the area, but still not happy with the applications.I would be interested to hear what folks, knowledgeable about the Austin market, think...is there more that we can do?

Though I'll also be the first to admit that the great ones are few and far between - the barrier to entry to become an agent is loo low, and we do not do a good enough job regulating our profession and weeding out the bad apples.

The wholesaler has said they can't give me my deposit back unless they sell the home to someone else because they have $4,000 of their own earnest money that they will lose on the property of it's not sold.So far they've been unable to sell the property and have lowered the price $10,000.Is there anything I can do to try and get my deposit back or at least lodge a complaint for not disclosing the prior sinkhole before I sent in my deposit? 

I get why some sellers are desperate enough to cash in their chips for a discount, but not so much why they would accept lower monthly drip feed than they could arrange for themselves?

Many are stubborn about lowering price though. 

Otherwise, I was going to look for a bank loan and try to get something that charges me as I draw  (vs getting one big loan all at once) and slightly lower interest.

If current expenses for the property for instance 65%, can you lower it to 55% or less.

Unless you have the actual financial data to back your analysis you would be better served staying conservative using something closer to the 50% rule for expenses.It could be a possible deal if you could have a lower Purchase price and/or room to raise rents.

Just the lower tax rates alone would pay for property management and still give you a better return.

Since bing under contract we had an inspection that went really well and some minor things will be fixed before closing like painting some exterior and redoing a ground level entry deck.