HOA and insurance costs as low as possible.Can you suggest a few good cities in the FL with lower vacancy rates and close to nature/activities?

Do you look for an acre with city water and electricity and build on that or do you put in your own?  

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.PM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

Find them in meetup.org, or google in general city name REIA, or state name REIA. 

There's a great monthly meet-up called Space City REI that would be a great resource for you - next one is August 21!

Tybee and Garden City

Also, our property is 10x the size of most in the city at 1.75 acres.

@Joseph Braunthis is not unique to Baltimore, i think this is a feature of many cities, including most rust belt cities. 

However, if you are an investor involved in multiple cities, you might prefer a lender who is licensed in various locations.

I was thinking I'd buy an acre of land that has city electricy and water available, and pay that off so that it can be used for collateral one house at a time.