Try to put a bigger down payment in than you might need to give yourself some breathing room.2.

If you switch to or stay with the custom tax settings, you'll need to update the amount of tax collected to 7.75% because the 9% city tax will be collected and remitted by law to the city on your behalf, but  the 6% state and 1.75% county tax will be collected and sent to you to remit to the state and via Avenu to the county. 

In fact, some of the best opportunities in real estate come from properties that others overlook—distressed homes with potential that just need the right investor to bring them back to life.If you’ve been in the game long enough, you know that distressed properties can offer huge upside, but they also come with their own set of challenges.

say you find a solid property in a low cost market for $200K and you buy it.between down payment, closing costs, rent ready / spruce up costs, and lease-up costs, you're probably going to need at least 50-65K in cash. 

You need two years of steady income before you can qualify for a loan.

@Brian Chadwickno need to sell - why not refinance?

These days the hardest part for me is finding & keeping qualified contractors for the work that always needs to be done.

It is just like being in sales doing the prospecting, need to pick up the phone and call them.

Quote from @Brandi Jefferson: Hi Jaycee,Tampa doesn't have much inventory on MF, so I'm starting my research outside my market, and learning what I would need to make that happen, since house hacking is likely not an option.

Typically with houses of this age - you'll need structural folks to dig and install piers into the soil.