I'm super excited to get the wheels turning as this seems like a fine path to investing for me at this time -- but I'm really curious what everyone else is doing to make investing work in Jacksonville -- especially given the "fun" of the Florida Homeowners Insurance market. 

I buy stock out of laziness but am more heavy into cash equivalentsRE is more fun IMO but I am more entrepreneurial.

Personally the wisest thing is to pause till the fall or winter to see where occupancy, nightly rates and interest rates are. 

Also, it's hard for folks to put assets and liabilities side by side, because for some, they have a negative net worth - and facing that fact in black and white is not fun. 

It's a sleepy read, but I do recommend reading the NYS Tenant Protection Act of 2019 -- 55 pages of fun!

There are winter weather issues and so many things that come up from not being physically there The numbers someone gives you on a spreadsheet are ideal scenarios.  

I don't know, but you would 100% want to check in with the existing optometrist, maybe they don't get "walk in" business anyways and do not care and wouldn't mind the like-minded neighbors (I've had mortgage neighbors before, and do not care -- I do mortgages they don't, case in point office mortgages across the country, so I wind up getting business from them), but an ice cream shop is going to be LIVID if you rent the unit next store to a frozen yoghurt shop, since that's a LOT of walk-in business that's now getting split two waysAnd then to make it really fun, here's the question I'll throw back at you.

Have fun!

Regardless of which home you buy, you will need to spend some money in upgrades and fun features to maximize rentals.One last note:  I would not put too much of emphasis on a PSF analysis. 

The TV shows like HVTV look like rehabing a house is fun , contractors show up with smiling faces and everything goes according to plan .