Prioritize your financial stability.

Congrats on achieving a comfortable financial situation.Condos are actually riskier than single family rentals. 

The key takeaway was timing...selling each property in a way that allowed him to hit the 45-day identification period without rushing into a subpar deal.In your case, with SFHs in Jacksonville and Ocala plus that duplex in Port Charlotte, I’d look at where each market stands right now and figure out if there’s a single buyer who’ll pay close to fair value for the whole set or if you might do better by splitting them up.

Financial terms.  

A tip would be knowing The number of doors you qualify for from a lender, And then looking at financial statements from places a little smaller and a little bigger.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

It would be great if your rental could also work financially as a long-term rental if the STR market changes.  

Developing strong financial and business acumen is also crucial for success as an investor, so that’s another area where you could focus your efforts if getting a license doesn’t align with your plans.I’m here as a resource—feel free to reach out if there’s anything I can do to help!

Just curious where each of you stands on this one. 

I think new builds in such areas is a great idea, but financially it's very hard to make the numbers work since you will probably have a very hard time finding comps.