One of the things that gives me great pause about purchasing a home in the Fort Myers area is the astronomical price appreciation that has occurred in this area in the last few years. 

If there's any maintenance required, it's pretty much covered and you're not paying astronomical dollars.

The cost is astronomical.

The 70% doesn't account for "risk" in the project.If you have a crumbling basement, the repairs may be $30K... and the 70% rule will account for that cost in the repairs section... but the risk is astronomical.

I’d rather not buy than pay astronomical amounts for garbage  

My salary has increased by 10-20% yearly and the remote properties are making some money slowly however, it seems the properties in the bay keep rising at astronomical rates. 

this should not even be a subject to discussion. call the city or have your contractor call the city, find out what the permit requirements are and comply from there. the issues may be non-existant (unlikely) or astronomical - you won't have a buyer when you sell, your insurance will deny your claim because your property is out of compliance, your tenants will sue because something wasn't done to code and someone was injured, the list goes on.I am considering never stopping at a red light.

They aren't required to own a rental property (just get an umbrella insurance policy to cover you for liability), and when you're first getting started, there are so many other things you need to learn to be successful with rental properties that if you make that list of things astronomically longer by adding LLC drama into it, you're just going to slow yourself down from learning what you really need to learn.

I carefully do my comps and tend to underestimate them ( just closed a deal where I estimated ARV $80k and buyer sold for over $130k), I do try to overestimate repairs because you never know what you'll find once reno begins, and I don't try to get astronomical assignment fees because I want buyers to come back to me.

Recently an area where I have rental properties has become a hotspot for bed bugs.Treatment companies are now wanting astronomical rates ($800-$1500) to do treatments on properties.