The mixed use you mentioned can be very judgmental by the city development group.  

He wanted to finish developing the property by adding more storage units, but the current Director of P&Z told him the zoning has changed and will only allow him to place "tourist-related" businesses on the property. 

I do not have the capital at the moment to invest into any type of real estate but i am starting a new job in August and want to develop a plan, therefore i can jump in and execute when I have the available capital. 

I also recommend reading blogs and forums or watching videos on how to develop a good roommate contract, house rules, etc.

I'm particularly passionate about growing quickly from SFRs into Multi-family and currently developing tools to source and assess deals.Outside of real estate, I enjoy long-form conversations with brilliant people, or at least watching them when there aren't other people around to converse with.

Certain forums and podcasts I listed to mentioned that pools are a big trend currently though they tend to be in newer developments that do not necessarily have views.

Material Participation in a Real Estate Trade or Business.This is pretty straightforward but you must materially participate in a real property trade or business, such as development, redevelopment, construction, reconstruction, acquisition, conversion, rental, operation, management, leasing, or brokerage.2.

I have been selling in the STR market (Kissimmee & Davenport Florida) for over 20 years now - back when the first short term rental developments were just being built. 

Community Development Corp.