The market here is very strong and competitive- appreciation is at a very high rate at about 5% annually.

House hacking and Airbnb rentals are great strategies to maximize your investment, especially in a competitive market like Tampa. 1.

It depends what market you are in and how competitive it is, as well as what type of property you are buying?

I believe Orlando may be a bit saturated with people who have a similar strategy and goal in mind so the competition may be higher.

Lastly, as the point of number 3 with a lot of offers, know that there will be a lot of offers and if that is the case, your COE "close of escrow" will want to be shorten to be competitive, but those assumptions can take 30+ days to close (typically 35-40 days).

Best case scenario: You buy in the off-market later this year when competition is at it's relative lowest, and then interest rates drop at some point in the next few years, and you can refinance. 

What's your competitive advantage?

There are some great competitive advantages when entering from OOS.

I can understand the reasoning behind only purchasing off market properties - less competition for buyer and that often means they get more leverage.

Plus there is so much competition from tons of people trying to get into wholesaling, not to mention the big players already getting the lions share.