Looking to partner with with more experienced investors or surround ourselves with folks with the necessary experience and/or skill sets to find deals secure necessary funding as needed to close. 

You really want to surround yourself with experts on every aspect of STR investing from insurance to financing, REI analysis, tax strategy, growth and marketing plans, etc... people who are good at this have teams of specialists guiding them.  

If you would like to know about this market or surrounding areas, I'd love to connect!

I can't seem to find any property with better numbers in the market where the growth is i.e all the major cities and surrounding suburbs in Florida. 

I took a look at some of the completed Sheriffs Auctions in Columbus and the surrounding counties.

Growing Population and Infrastructure Development**: Mobile's population continues to grow steadily, driven by a mix of natural population growth and inward migration.

@Carlos Ptriawan @Jay Hinrichs Residential ground leases in Maryland (Baltimore City mainly but also surrounding counties) are typically 99-year leases renewable in perpetuity, meaning as long as the rent continues to be paid the lease is automatically renewed for 99 more.No pay or slow pay and you can loose your leasehold property.You can "redeem" the ground (well except for "irredeemable" ground rents, but those are quite rare and another story) by buying out the owner of the fee simple interest a cap rate formula based upon the date the original lease was created.

But being casually active in real estate, infrastructure projects, private credit, and equities is my long term future but a lot more time focused on my kids.

The area seems it may be on the cheaper side of the close surrounding areas while at the same time holding the potential of having good cash flow.

When you say smaller towns and communities do you specifically mean Lafayette,or surrounding areas as well?