Also watch out for any HOA restrictions of course, and be aware that interest rates may be a lot higher for a non-warrantable condo - although I'm not sure how that would play out if it's your primary.  

As a Banker I have watched the housing market cool off Nationwide and rates come down.

Congrats on saving up that's an amazing start.I would suggest holding off on flipping if you don't want to do it near you, although with $250k, you probably could find something even in California that you could flip, we hear horror stories from our clients all the time of how they hired a contractor but were not able to watch progress and fly in 2 months later to see almost no work done and most of the money spent.  

I watched a video about house flipping, and he said to secure a property before a hard money and gap lender.

I doubt he ever recovered it.Another growing fraud to watch for?

Are there specific things I should watch out for when dealing with insurance companies in Florida?

Trying to stay at arms length (close to relative type deal) but want to watch over an elderly person.

I took your advice to mean they are only getting paid on their fees, not the rate charged.Lenders make their fee 1 of 2 ways typically.Lender paid compensation= the lender/broker fee is baked into the interest rate (most transactions are done this way but it makes it difficult to understand the actual base rate of the lender because they may charge more or less than other lenders so the comparison is not apples to apples).Borrower paid compensation = the comp is paid directly by the borrower as a line item in Section A.

While I am absolutely looking from afar right now, I have been watching this area for a couple of years and as a city they seem to be making steps in the path of progression.

Send me an email, and I'll send you a coupon code so you can watch it without charge, since you've already been to one of my classes.Beware of a void tax sale, though.