I will follow the advice here to keep high deductibles and low premium and save the premium for any contingencies later.

look for land with owner financing And I am sure you know this but location and safety will be paramount in the Jackson market there are simply areas the crime is far to high for this to be successful..

People focus on the rates because they are a singular number and easy to understand but you can lose money on a rental at a low interest rate and get rich paying a high interest rate.

For higher priced properties the 70% rule gives you too high of a profit and your offer won’t be competitive. 

So - with something like that in place, I would tell you that a property manager is highly overrated (perhaps the better way of saying it is "over-paid") for the amount of work that is typically needed in a month.

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

Perhaps is a bit too high.

However, I’ve been hesitant due to challenges like remote management, high interest rates, and low cash flow.

We can't find the next opportunity, have little economy of scale, so I'm forced to keep our reserves high.

For jacksonville I would highly recommend Elenis at Thirdstone Properties.