Bigger Pockets is a breathe of fresh air in a society where branding and marketing are overplayed. 

Things such as hot water tanks, carpets had to be replaced in a few years, so I wound up depreciation some items more than once.I sold a rental last year for $430K that originally cost me $70K as an investment property.

Than when inflation is happening and the issue of the day for some reason everyone lost there freakin minds and cold is now hot, up is down....   

Ideally it would be a single family or small multi-unit that I could set up as an Air bnb or long term rental with the goal of moving to St Pete to live in within the next 5-10 years.

Unless the market was super hot and values shooting up 1% monthly or more, this could be a huge waste of time.

Competent sponsor, capital call large enough to completely escape existing toxic loan with cash-in refinance to a lower-balance loan with a long maturity—good outcome possible, even probable, if there is no other “hot money” in the deal such as preferred equity or priority share classes.There are surely other nuances I’ve missed here, but this is a start. 

Verify air filter has been changed regularly.

The current area we are living in is very expensive and is heavily deed restricted"....sounds like you're currently in a HOT area. 

You certainly won't say I paid to thin air.

For the case of the typical OOS RE investor who would be hiring out work to contractors or using their PM’s maintenance staff for all repairs, I hold my estimate costs and process that derived it is fairly accurate and easier to justify then pulling numbers out of the air.