Any other insights that are unique to Florida or commercial I should consider would also be appreciated.

So, to portray yourself as a serious investor who can close on deals, here are a few options:Pay them a consulting feeTake them out for coffeeVisit their recent sales and tell them what you do and don't like about the properties as it relates to your ideal investmentProvide them with information on how you will fund a dealConstant follow-up: whenever you perform a task that brings you closer to completing a deal

More or less accomplishs the same thing just different view of the task...

If you break the contract because the PM fails to perform their basic tasks, then you should be able to break the agreement without penalty.

I suppose the answer according to this philosophy is to sell the house in order to pay off the new one faster.This just seems like a unique opportunity considering we already have the house and it has appreciated so much in a hot rental area.

Once you start pushing off tasks, it gets easier and easier to keep pushing them off.

So being a vet if you were trying to maximize your unique benefits I'd say buy a multi family house (2-4) units and live in one unit and rent out the others.

It would just be an insurmountable task to go out and find every single code violation existing in any given jurisdiction and that is the main reason code violations exist seemingly everywhere.

They most likely won't allow as high leverage as FHA in (1), but they'll be used to "unique" situations.

You have a track record of closing on deals, so when having conversations with brokers, definitely bring that up.Here are a few other tips for winning over a commercial broker:Pay them a consulting feeTake them out for coffeeVisit their recent sales and tell them what you do and don't like about the properties as it relates to your ideal investmentProvide them with information on how you will fund a dealConstant follow-up: whenever you perform a task that brings you closer to completing a dealOnce you know how much cash you will have ($225k or $675k), you can figure out the max purchase price you can handle by assuming you will need 30% to 35% of the total project costs in equity.