Here's a qucik mockup of the garage more matching the house.That foundation, wow, what a mess.If it were mine I would have a structural engineer and maybe a soil engineer come out and give an opinion on it.It's sheer weight may have made it crack off like that, no rebar, etc...If it's was salvageable, maybe I would jackhammer away the broken parts and reset the walls on the good part. making the garage smaller.Disassembling and bracing one wall at a time and increasing the overhang of the roof.Then when done, gypsum board the entire thing inside and paint it ceiling white.If it were  my personal garage I would Pink Panther insulate it and use a space heater for winter comfort.It could be a nice little gym for renter who works out.Also, I would have an electrician verify the electrical is hooked up correctly for garage (because the concrete seems amateurish I suspect the electrical may be too).

This kind of money has some good weight behind it in other markets....granted you might not see the same $ in appreciation, but you'd see far far far more cash flow.I went to KC, could make a long list of logical reason why and happy to if you wanted to chat....but have some creative ideas for you.You could do some multi family or portfolio, like everyone does...or scale it down a bit and add in some STR.

Again -Scott thanks for the rapid response and the great platform here at BiggerPockets!

You might add an engineer to your list to make sure the building is structurally able to accommodate the extra weight and load bearing your work

@Slim Geransarsimilar to you, i'm priced out of where i live so out of state investing is what i can afford. i would suggest at the very least, starting your journey with turnkey properties so you can be more hands-off with your first remote investment(s). property management is also the most important. we had a few properties in scottsdale and decided to sell them all in 2019 because it became such a headache to do remotely. our property management team was not pulling their weight, we ended up flying to AZ few times a year to help out the property manager lol. they were a small team and didn't have the manpower. so i would advise the expensive PM fees are worth it for good PM. my latest investment is in DFW through a company that sells turnkey rentals that are already tenanted and come with property management so i have never actually seen my property in person, and i dont deal with my tenant!

Other way would be to get the price down so your after renovation cost is closer to $95k.You could try to get personal loans but would have to weight the high interest rate in your cash flow calculations.

That said, I read a lot of forums on insurance here on BP and this is rarely discussed...insurance that is considered personal lines (1-4 units that is either in your own name or that of a company) is pretty heavily weighted towards your personal credit.

That would shift the weight and make it unlikely to fall in your direction.

While Austin can be tough to break into I really like it, short vacancies, great quality tenants and rapid appreciation!

if your going to go out of state at least to start.. simply buy something that is either already rented or rent ready.. the down side to trying to rehab on your own as a beginner FAR out weights the tiny equity you get doing it yourself.. and how do you know if those writing the books are successful  LOL..