Whatever you can do to increase your savings or increase your income: cut out unnecessary expenses, work a side job, put money into a HYSA as opposed to a regular savings account earning 0.1% interest.

To pick the right house, use sites like Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com, know what's going on in the local area, and look at loan options like regular bank loans or FHA loans.

How it is different from a regular transaction? 

Since I vetted the tenants and regularly did property inspections we were okay with not having the extra protection of having it in an LLC.

First, we have to assume that you will have a significant taxable capital gain and will NOT be using tax strategies that defer this tax, such as the already mentioned 1031 exchange.

There are plenty of other 'regular' neighborhoods that can still perform to your expectations and needs.

My understanding is that in Florida I do not need to hire licensed contractors to do regular routine maintenance (replace lamps, toilets, tiles, etc), is this true?

It is deducted from the death benefit, but is it now taxable?

But it's still a bandaid and will pop out, crack, let water in, separate, and let the underlying wood rot almost as bad as regular bondo, after a few years.Napa, 3m, bondo, & Evercoat (marine), etc all sell polyester auto body fillers that are one step up from the prior with real "waterproof" claims etc, maybe priced around $30-50/quart or $75/gallon, range.

The monthly fee of X% should cover most regular things (collecting rent, answering calls, dealing with the occasional repair request which might happen once or twice a year depending on the tenant).