To be safe with anything except a fairly new house, you’d need to excavate around the house, parge the outside of the foundation with asphalt, install a dimpled plastic membrane over that, and then on the inside, fastidiously install rigid foam on the floor and walls, spray foam/tape all seams, etc… Then frame, then drywall.Seems ungodly expensive.

The Florida safe harbor seems to be a giveaway to the banks, since a regular purchaser must cover all outstanding dues, but the bank can claim the safe harbor benefit.

Oftentimes when municipalities ban STRs they will grandfather in existing operators, but if you are mid build when they do that you’re screwed  Once you’ve identified a list of “safe” markets, compare them on Airdna to see where you can likely charge the most (I’m assuming building costs will be more or less similar, so you might as well pick the area where you can earn more revenue)Also, in this market you may be able to pick up land with seller financing instead of having to buy in cash or traditional financing … potentially low or no money down, and won’t affect your personal DTI.

Call it 2 weeks to be safe ...If you call the trades , figure on a month maybe 2 months , depending on the work . 

I lived in neighboring town of Poughkeepsie called Town of Lloyd - Highland, NY 12528 for more than 19 years its a nice and safe neighborhood with good school district, worlds largest walk-way over Hudson river, lots of trails, golf, biking, scenic drives with good hospitals in 5 miles radius namely: Nuvance Health Vassar Brothers Medical Center, MidHudson Regional Hospital, Saint Francis Medical, Health Quest Home Care and others...The latest addition which is getting constructed is The Village in Highland, NY - Assisted living facility.

It was cheaper rent but safe.

They feel VERY safe, especially if they are lending it to me!!

I really see Columbus Ohio as an extremely safe bet for the next 10-20 years.

There are a few types of people who will buy your end of line flips….1) Those that will only buy truly safe … battle born… “equity the day I buy”.. opportunities And/or2) those that were trained to see real estate investing as a much more risky “ investment”… in other words  “ a buy that “SHOULD” have value after appreciation”With Buyer group #1… if you provide truly investor grade deals that haven’t been stripped of most of the equity before you try to flip, you will build a following of investor grade buyers that WILL pay cash and CAN close “ as soon as the title search is done”… This will net smaller nets for you initially , but you will own a REAL Buyers list… that WILL have the experience… to REALLY CLOSE ASAP.And that will make your machine run MUCH more smoothly.Or2) you can initially max out your net on a few deals as you scape out most of the equity for yourself… but you will only be working with non experienced buyers.. who will buy ….one… realize that they are in WAY too deep… have no B plan.. and they will be FAR less likely to buy again… AND they may never even make it to your first closing .So.. your choice… cultivate a crop of GREAT slam dunk , low work load real buyer investors…. where all you need to do is find the property , mark it up a LITTLE ..and we do all of the rest of the work…Or sew a crop of weeds…I do spend a little bit of my time asking wholesalers to take me off of their lists.I would love to buy from you.I don’t want to spend my time doing the initial marketing.I am willing to pay for your valueBut I don’t buy properties that don’t have TWO exit strategies1) enough equity AT CLOSING so that, at the very least I could sell it TODAY without taking a loss…..AND2) after my expertise …. 

If this were my first, second, or third deal I would calculate that expense in to be "safe"; or if it needed repairs, but no.