But, there are often other warning signs that are more subtle when dealing with scams, or even just incompetent realtors.

Doing to of state deals come in 2 flavors - turn-key operators and going your own deals.

Since I Don't invest in FL there may be someone from that area that can provide you more details.Your on the right track, start finding properties and run them thru your spreadsheets and you will start getting a good idea of how the game works and what the subtle differences are between properties.And don't forget location is everything, so drive by some of your prospects.

I am trying to understand different subtle factors like how close the location is to the jobs, is the crime high/low, is the neighborhood up and coming etc. 

It's a subtle play on cash-for keys.  

What is avg cost of eviction, etcThere are more, but wanted to give you a flavor.  

Take out maintenance and a reasonable management amount and if he likes you, you'll have a good chance at it.Get with an attorney to do the note and closing and set up a loan servicing company to service the note for both of you, you can search that on BP.If you have an LLC, title it in the LLC's name to begin with, you might be able to make it a commercial flavored loan staying away from all the issues I've been talking about today.

Yeah I see how all this could be very subtle as interpretation.

Just like in '06 where there wasn't a country club up and down the east coast that didn't have at least one member talking about how they got their cash in a hedge fund and knew a guy who could get them in with Bernie.Beware the flavor of the week. 

They are very different types of investments.Commercial RE comes in many flavors as well which further complicates the comparison.I'm starting off into commercial property investment in a small way so that I can get my feet wet.