A steady annual growth rate, diverse industries, and affordable living attract residents.

As I’m interested in real estate, I feel like your success in this industry is about your connections as well as  having a good mentor.

There are going to be some very small pockets you'd probably want to avoid, but even those aren't that bad compared to other cities' bad areas.

As we embark on our journey into real estate investing, we are seeking valuable advice and guidance to establish a solid foundation in this industry

If you don't have that, keep earning, saving, and managing the risk you take by investing in REITs (which is small but risk still exists).If you already have at least $100k to invest, and you're wondering where to start as an OOS investor, I recommend this dataset that we at BiggerPockets put together specifically for people like you and me.https://www.biggerpockets.com/resources/housing-market-data/...It contains information like job growth, population growth, and rent-price ratio for all markets to compare and contrast.

Create a simple spreadsheet or written list to compare the features of each and identify the ones that align with your requirements.

Real estate there is generally not tied to a single plant or industry.

How do I find mentors and peers who can teach me about the industry? 

Have you compared the appreciating cash flow on the duplex to the potential savings on your current mortgage over 1,3, and 5 years? 

So percentage wise Jacksonville has seen a crazy amount of new supply being delivered which has affected rents.We also manage a portfolio of new construction homes in Palm Coast and Palm Bay and rents for those homes have dropped $25-75 depending upon floorplan and submarket and they’re taking longer to lease up compared to 2 years ago.A lot of Florida is having similar issues of stagnating or dropping rent, but it definitely depends on market, submarket, asset type, etc.