Validate planning zoning requirements and access to utilities.

I'm a member of one local STR page that vets owners by requiring they see a utility bill with the address and the owner's name.

If you have zero vacancies, zero tenant damage, make sure utilities (especially heat) stay on every winter even if the tenant doesn’t pay.  

The one percent and 2 percent rule ive never looked at ... cap rate is .. meh .. its there - what im most concerned with is the price of the home relative to comparables and cash on cash to start.   9)  I look  the other way if it is a multi unit that is not separately metered - thats always one of my criteria here in pgh as there are a lot of older homes and a good portion you wind up worrying about who will cover utilities.  

Quote from @Pat Arneson:Usually, the city website has all the utility companies for the city that you should be contacting.

I would however recommend elevating anything placed in a non-elevated utility room to ensure damage is unlikely in future storms.

Regarding property management, utilizing local property managers can save you time, and using PropStream effectively for filtering properties by distress level and location will certainly help with finding stronger deals.

Same logic applies here as it does to your previous experience, there's just simply an added layer of the income produced by the property. 

I know many successful investors that utilize it and some have higher-end properties in areas like Maitland.

There's no one size fits all approach to real estate investing and depending on your resources, skill set, and capabilities you may excel in one particular market or utilizing a specific strategy whereas another investor will excel using a different approach.