After 20+ years in Tampa, I’ve seen that the best agents don’t just sell you a dream—they give you real numbers, honest comps, and realistic projections.

A good condo board should be saving money for larger projects as they are known in advance (eg every 25 years you need a new roof). 

My goal is to get into the project management realm of residential construction to start.

Some hard money lenders will fund the project but I agree with Nicholas L's response that it's harder when you are a first time investor without a track record. 

You’ll make less money but you may learn more along the way for future projects or reduce the headache factor (which can be significant).

@Frank Alfano agency debt is very competitive (75-80 ltv, non-recourse, fixed-rate etc); you can syndicate and raise the equity portion needed from friends and family, provided you can market and lead the project.

The area seemed to really gain appreciation in the middle of rehab and boosted an ROI that was already projected to be strong.

They are currently in the middle of a quarter billion dollar multi use zoning project. 

After finding outlets and switches placed in bad spots and plumbers who wanted to argue about the use of Pex manifolds my subsequent projects I literally would pound all the electrical boxes and label what they were for and buy all the the materials myself. 

So my patience is wearing THIN on the Bennah Oaks Ocala project.