you could build a ground up triplex with like 2/3 of that money in the urban core of columbus.

Below is a photo of a 4-plex I recently built from the ground up on land I acquired through the subdividing process.I currently operate in Canada and I'm looking to take my talents south of the border.

I think going with a smaller boutique family property company could be a good middle ground.

I think that's a solid plan- sort of a middle ground between the risk of leveraging too much and not enough.

Nothing beats local knowledge though & speaking with boots on the ground. 

Another criterion that I did not put in my original response was that we had to establish boots-on-the-ground partners in the market.

We currently live off of her income from her W2 while getting her company off the ground.

The other part of me is worried about the liability of having drunk people on vacation driving a golf cart they don't own.Maybe there's a middle ground.

Since we didn’t have a pool and are not walking distance to the Broadwalk, we focused on interior design and that has helped, but we consistently lose out to Airbnbs with a pool, so we are working on maybe getting an above-ground pool and/or hot tub.

Also, if you're starting out from the ground floor, you're going to spend all your time going out and raising funds and very little time in honing your craft as a successful operator.