Starting with phase one 4 doors-Multi fam.

Unit 1 ($450)has a tenant being evicted and unit 2 ($350)is vacant and in a rehab phase.

Hard to be in the cash-flow, expansion phase of your journey playing with a balance sheet / capital pres hand.   

I just assume that a large part of what took me so long is "you don't know what you don't know" and I'm in the crawling phase now.

However, you should learn and do your own diligence as well especially during the home inspection phase of the buying process. 

Helical piles, and leaving me convinced by their expertise and inclined to take action on their bid.I didn't ultimately sign off, as I had not budgeted for that much into foundation work, and have since been able to do most of the foundation slab crack demo & repair myself with some local sub-contractor help.The helical piles approach tho: drive a stake down until it hits bedrock and then neumatically "pump up" the foundation until its back to level...seems like the ultimate right approach & solution I need, before I proceed to a future phase of finishing the attic, bumping out shed dormers, and adding +1000sqft w/ +1bdrm, +1ba, & +1 wetbar/kitchennette for an STR unit.That project phase is a few mos out, and will require a structural engineer, as I'll be adding interior structure posts, a major new ridge beam, and 20' of floor-to-ceiling full-light windows & french doors facing the bay. 

Obviously the credit run has shown up on my FL closing process but easy to explain, other than that, at what phase of the purchase process (on the NC home) will it start to affect my FL purchase?

Once you get over it you phase out.

What questions do I need to consider now while in the exploratory phase? 

There's always a struggle to get the last little bit of a project wrapped up.Or you could phase out the job (3-5 phases) and pay a % of the job per completed, signed off phase